Where the Girls Are

"Spring Breakdown" is the rare comedy that's truly for the ladies. Too bad it disappoints.

Movies about adult males who live like hard-partying, irresponsible college students have become a reliably successful movie genre over the years, particularly during the past decade. (See "Old School," "Wedding Crashers" and practically every comedy with which producer-director Judd Apatow has been vaguely associated). In "Spring Breakdown" -- a straight-to-DVD ($27.98) and Blu-ray ($35.99) release in stores today -- the ladies finally take a (keg) stand, proving that women also have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of foam parties.

Yeah, that doesn't exactly sound like the sort of empowerment Betty Friedan had in mind when she wrote "The Feminine Mystique." Still, "Breakdown," a movie that earned a midnight screening slot at this year's Sundance Film Festival but wound up in the Warner Bros. direct-to-DVD pile, somehow manages to celebrate the solidarity of sisterhood even when its often sophomoric script forces its trio of funny stars -- Parker Posey, Amy Poehler and Rachel Dratch -- into one too many contrived, sitcom-ready storylines.

In case the title and the movie's promotional tagline ("Payback's a beach!") hasn't done enough to reveal the comedy's plot, here's a quick summary: Posey, Poehler and Dratch play longtime, Lilith Fair-loving friends living in Washington, D.C. and desperately trying to not merely get their grooves back, but find them in the first place.

Enter the opportunity to visit alcohol-soaked South Padre Island during spring break, where Posey, aide to a brassy senator (an appropriately twangy Jane Lynch), will be tasked with keeping her boss's daughter (Amber Tamblyn) from YouTubing her way to public shame and thereby obliterating her mother's shot at a vice-presidential nomination. Not surprisingly, the older women eagerly seize on the trip as a chance to take a vacation, raise their blood alcohol levels and revel in the college experiences they never had, even if those experiences don't always make sense to them. "Why would anyone want to wrestle in salsa?" Posey pointedly asks after flailing around in chunks of tomatoey goop in a girl-on-girl match. "We are not tacos."

Lines like that -- not to mention a subplot in which the brainy Poehler happily becomes BFFs with a group of glossy-lipped bikini babes -- demonstrate how close "Spring Breakdown" comes to working as social satire for women who know they will never be Samantha from "Sex and the City." And that makes its failures even more disappointing. For all 84 minutes of its running time, it's clear the movie's production values will never rise above those of basic cable, and that the many talented members of its cast -- which also features "Arrested Development" alum Will Arnett (Poehler's real-life husband) and "SNL" vet Seth Meyers -- won't get a true opportunity to shine when their characters are so underdeveloped. But every once in a while, "Spring" surprises with a real stand-up-and-cheer moment, like Poehler's reaction to a South Padre partier who flashes her goodies, "Girls Gone Wild"-style. "Get it together!" she screams, horrified, after slapping the girl across the face. You won't see anyone do that in "The Hangover."

For those who are curious, the DVD extras, which include additional scenes and a giggle-less gag reel, add little value, but Dratch and writer-director Ryan Shiraki deserve some credit for not taking themselves (or their movie) too seriously during the commentary track. Here's hoping they and their colleagues get the chance to make a more sophisticated comedy someday, one that proves sisters can not only do it for themselves, but they can do it without going straight to DVD.