Why So Blu?

Everybody Wants Some!! follows Jake (Blake Jenner) who’s recently been accepted into a Texas college to play on their Baseball Team.  Due to overcrowding, the city has procured housing for the team as they await the start of the semester.  In the meantime, the boys are on the hunt to sow their wild oats among the local class-women.  A mix of colorful personalities round out this ensemble cast.  Though this is pretty much a “guys” movie, there’s plenty of “Baseball Beefcake” for the ladies to enjoy.

 

Film
Richard Linklater choose an interesting point in time to set this college sex-comedy.  In regards to Pop-Culture, 1980 was sort of a transitional period before everything went full on “New Wave”.  In this film we get little bits of Disco Dancing along with classic 80’s rock songs like “My Sharona” and “Heartbreaker”.  At first it was a little jarring having these two decades sort of mash together as the story progresses.  But after you settle into the groove, it’s all gravy from there!

The film starts off with some fun and snappy dialogue between the teammates, but after a while the witty banter becomes less “Dazed and Confused”, and more “Van Wilder”.  Which is unfortunate because this cast has some genuine chemistry, but the script they have to work with just isn’t up to snuff.  The female characters are surprisingly generic for a film that was made in the 21st century.  You might expect to see women depicted this way in say, the late 90’s.  But at this point when we see a female character show up just to be the pretty face on screen, everything becomes predictable and dull.

At the same time this is totally the kind of movie that you could throw on in the background during a party.  Because there isn’t really much of a story to speak of, you could easily follow it while socializing with friends.  They make a valiant effort to develop a budding relationship between Jake and a comely lass he encounters whilst on the hunt.  But unfortunately it comes too lit too late as the meat-head shenanigans have already overpowered any attempts at classy sex jokes.

I don’t wanna be TOO hard on this film as it does have a few shining moments that are worth your time.  Ironically, the scene where the team has their first practice is one of the highlights of the film.  And I’m not even a sports fan!  But it’s at this moment that we start to actually get to know these characters, at least on a semi-personal level.  Which makes sense considering when these guys aren’t talking about getting laid, they’re arguing about Baseball.  They touch on the fact that people who play sports, especially on a professional level, constantly crave the thrill of competition.  So much so that when they don’t have a game to play, they actually resort to elementary school games like “Bloody Knuckles”!

I get the feeling that Linklater wrote this movie by taking ideas he had for other scripts, and combined them into this one.  I feel like this concept would’ve been much better suited as a TV series rather than a film.  There are so many interesting characters that just don’t get the opportunity to be flushed out in a way that would really draw the audience into the film.  In “Dazed and Confused” we get little moments not just with McConaughey, but with the side characters as well that give us a sense of what each of these kids are about.  This film tries to recreate that same magic, but instead it ends up jogging past storylines that don’t really get any satisfying resolutions.

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Clarity/Detail: Some movies that take place around this time usually have some sort of hazy filtering to give you the sense of actually watching a movie from the 80’s.  Here they opted to go with a more modern look and it’s a nice change of pace.  Everything is crisp and defined.

Depth: They are a few distance shots but on a whole everything is mostly shot in a room, so there is much opportunity for scope.  But the moments that do pull back are pretty decent.

Black Levels: Not too deep or rich.  But they are serviceable.  The early 80’s didn’t really lend itself to darker tones as much as say, the 90’s.  So I think the emphasis was more on the brighter colors.

Color Reproduction: Excellent. Spot on.

Flesh tones: Sharp and accurate.  Considering these lads are so determined to find some lady flesh, it makes sense that this is one area where the film excels.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean.

Audio Formats: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

Low Frequency Extension: Not much use for this feature with a film such as this.  But the musical scenes are punchy and vibrant.

Surround Sound Presentation: N/A.

Dialogue Reproduction: Each character is clear and defined.  Some of these scenes can get kinda chatty to the point where multiple people are talking at once.  But at no time did I feel like any dialogue got muddied by someone else.

• Everybody Wants Some!!: More Stuff That’s Not in the Movie – A collection of moments in between takes where the cast gets to goof around with each other.  Plus deleted scenes and bloopers.  This stuff is almost funnier than the scenes that made it into the movie!

• Rickipedia – The cast talk about Richard Linklater’s encyclopedic knowledge of 70’s and 80’s pop-culture and the level of detail it brings to a period film such as this. Everything from the way people would high-five to making sure that the slang that was used during improv scenes was vetted through his computer like memory.

• History 101: Stylin’ in the 80’s – A little behind the scens of the cast as the get their wigs, mustaches and happenin’ threads.  They also talk about how different men used to dress compared to today. More specifically, how much smaller and tighter the shorts and pants were at the time.

Summary
I can see how this could be the kind of move that might strike a nostalgic chord for those who went to college around that time.  But for those of us who didn’t, this film comes off as more a snap shot of someone’s own specific experience, rather than something many people could relate to on some level.  But like I said, this is the perfect movie if you’re looking for something light and energetic with some fun characters.  But if they would have just had some scenes that allowed us to get to know the team just a LITTLE bit better, then this movie would’ve ended up being a real home-run rather than a base hit.

Everybody Wants Some!! arrives on Blu-ray July 12th!