Drinking Games

Released By: Believe Limited
Released On: 08/05/2013
Director: Ryan Gielen
Cast: Rob Bradford, Blake Merriman, Nick Vergara, Riccarda Albrecht, Katy Wright-Mead
Year: 2012
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The Film:

It seems like a normal preface to a Christmas Break, I suppose...a university dorm is half-empty, most of the students having headed home to stay with their families over the holiday, leaving a few stragglers behind who have finals to write, as well as some others who aren't going to miss out on some last-minute partying. Richard fits into the first category of students left behind, and has not much on his mind outside of finishing his paper so that he can get home to see his sick father. Unfortunately for Richard, his roommate Shawn fits into the latter category, and has only partying and the loss of his virginity as his priorities.

The elephant in the room is not an elephant at all, but rather a slumbering hipster named Noopie, who has found his way to Shawn and Richard's floor after a wild night of drinkin' and druggin'...something that he wouldn't mind a repeat performance of. When Richard and Shawn argue over whether or not their room will become a "party room", Noopie takes Shawn's side, urging him to stake his claim as part-owner of this potential Den of Debauchery, arranging for a number of like-minded students to show up when Richard suddenly and for no real reason goes to take a shower. When Richard returns, the party is in full booze-chugging, line-snorting swing, something that is obviously not going to help him get his paper done.

Exiled to the hallway, Richard makes his way to the room of a former girlfriend of sorts, who is still angry at him for shacking up with her even after he knew he was leaving school and not returning, and who has a habit of suddenly appearing in dream-like snowy sequences speaking a foreign language. Meanwhile, the party carries on downstairs as Noopie and company drink more booze and do more coke, and talk about things.

I often find it difficult to trash a film totally, even if I really dislike it; I respect that the filmmakers had the dedication and follow-through to put out a finished product, and I understand that not everyone has the same tastes or enough of a budget to put out something that looks slick. With that preface out of the way, it's very difficult to like anything about Drinking Games. It's simply an ugly mess of a film that seems thrown together as an afterthought with no regard the viewer's need to watch something decent.

"Shot on Red" seems to be a popular and cost-effective way to make a digital independent film these days, but Drinking Games may as well have been shot on camcorder, with no apparent attention to lighting the scenes, or having any continuity between scenes. Likewise, the audio is a mixed bag, jumping fairly significantly throughout the movie. Obviously, nobody's going to expect the quality of Pacific Rim (also shot on Red), but there seems to be no effort made at all.

After casting aside the technical flaws, one must also deal with the writing flaws; namely conversations that don't seem to serve much of a purpose in outlining the motivations of the characters. Some press releases describe Drinking Games as a thriller, and put Noopie in the role of masterful and manipulative tormentor, but his dialogue, like the far-too-long "Have you ever kissed a girl?" scene between two female cast members come off as desperate and lame. Noopie's actions aren't much more convincing, as he attempts to flip between sinister and apathetic, which leaves him somehow in dopey jock territory. The rest of the cast members don't get to do too much else except orbit around a moronic central character, and their conversations don't do anything but go around in circles with a bunch of profanity. Drinking Games is apparently based on a play by the same writer, and who knows, maybe it plays better on the stage. It certainly falls short on the screen. This isn't helped by Gielen's direction, which goes from amateurish to puzzled, switching to camera angles and points-of-view that just don't make much sense at all, mid-scene.

With the addition of some compulsory artsy dream shots with subtitles, Gielen and Co. have pretty much guaranteed that most of their audience will walk away scratching their heads...but not in a good way.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Drinking Games comes to (Manufactured on Demand) DVD in a 1.85:1 anamorphic presentation that looks pretty average, given the source material. A lack of consistency in shots between scenes makes it unclear what the filmmakers were going for, but the low-light/digital combination gives the movie more of a shot on video feel, with more grays than blacks and no real detail.

The Dolby Digital 2.0 track is adequate enough to handle the dialogue and the few strangely chosen soundtrack bits, but like the video, comes across as less than stellar. Dialogue in some scenes is difficult to hear, while it's too loud in others. Some balancing would have been nice, but at least it doesn't suffer from hissing or distortion.

There are some extras on the disc as well....first up is a feature-length commentary with cast and crew. While some information about filming is imparted, the track suffers from having too many participants, many of whom are too busy cracking jokes to talk about the movie.

A series of interviews are also included. First up is a short interview with the Assistant Directors that runs just under 2 minutes, and features Ian Knoblauch and John Ferry pretending that they can't remember the name of the movie and engaging in the kind of stupid conversation that prevents any real information from getting through. Next up is a short click with the Production Assistants, who also have to act jaded and talk really slow. The Producers are equally as annoying, pretending to be too busy playing video games to remember the name of the film. A live performance of the song "Cocaine Saved My Life" is included in the interviews for some reason, but the only real interview worth watching is the 4-minute clip with Ryan Gielen, who talks about promotion of the film and the shooting location. If you want to save yourself some time, skip directly to the Gielen interview.

Drunk Sports is a collection of video clips (it's described elsewhere online as a "comedy webisode series" that show you different stupid activities you can do when you're drinking, like trying to throw a frisbee to somebody in a window, or play twister on construction paper circles on the sidewalk. The end of each segment, some of which are mislabeled, gives you the option to see more drunk sports or exclusive interviews, but I wasn't able to click on them.

Finally, a Still Gallery is included with a number of shots from the film, some of which feature quotes from what I can assume are reviewers superimposed over top....one quote is used twice, right in a row. I guess they ran out of good quotes.

The Final Word:

I really can't find any reason to recommend this disc. The movie is bad, the supplements are not much better, and somebody in the quality control department needs a stern talking to. With a pretty high MSRP (for a burn on demand DVD-R), you're better off spending your pennies elsewhere.