The Real World Movie: The Lost Season (2002)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written by Ted Iredell and James LaRosa
Directed by Jeffrey Reiner
Starring Bryan Kirkwood, Matthew Currie Holmes, Shani Pride, Julie Patzwald, Laura Jordan, Michael Leisen, John Henry Reardon, Will Sanderson, and Peter Shenkoda
Features:

• Behind the scenes documentary
  
• Cast Profiles
  

Released by: Paramount Home Video
Rating: NR
Region: 1
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 format

My Advice: Forget it exists

MTV's Real World: Vancouver never made it to television...until now. It seems that after they got all the kiddos together in their loft, they were--all of em--kidnapped by a psychotic and deranged Real World wannabe (and reject of the casting process) who is determined that he can do it better than MTV. What has he got that makes him think this? Cameras...which are wired to explosives.

What's the main problem here? MTV is subverting its own "experiment". Even the most gifted and skilled writers have trouble creating characters that are "real" enough to make a believable story. I have no idea why these guys thought they could do it with bland, overused stereotypes. It seems they tried to write the movie the way the producers of the show cast the show. But, just for the sake of argument, that it's okay that the writers were this short-sighted; let's assume that this was the script that the actors had to work with. It would take the most skilled and highly trained actors to make these bland, overused stereotypes into believable characters in a "real life" situation. The actors would have to spend an exorbitant amount of time doing research and, essentially, filling in the gaps that these writer were so kind as to leave out of the script. Now, perhaps, this entire thing is meant to be a parody of the actual show--but the complete lack of guffaws would lead me to believe otherwise.

Then there's the problem of the production values. This has to be one of the worst editing jobs I have seen in quite some time. The story seems to jump from moment to moment, but there doesn't seem to be any real plot connecting those moments together. Granted that sounds a lot like a writing problem, but it appears to be more of an editing problem here.

Which brings me to the DVD presentation of this movie, which is almost as trite and boring as MTV's show has become. There are only two bonus features listed on the menu. The cast profiles are nothing more special than exists on any other DVD anywhere, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time about them. However, I do have to say a few words about this so-called behind the scenes documentary. What they claim passes for a documentary lasts no longer than twenty minutes and its chocked full of the cast taking themselves way too seriously and the producers talking about all the humor in the movie (which I missed completely--and I hate it when I feel like I'm not getting a joke). Anyway, it's pretty much the same old crap that you've seen on thousands of other DVDs where the producers didn't have any other material to put on the disc. Even the actors spend most of their time talking about the stereotypes that they are playing rather than the characters themselves.

Maybe a die-hard fan of the original show will want to give this a look, but it's primarily a failed attempt to capitalize on a successful franchise. You've been warned.