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Real World Movie: The Lost Season, The
Paramount // Unrated // January 28, 2003
List Price: $19.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
"When I first signed up for The Real World, I thought that I would be opening myself up to new experiences. I never thought that one of those experiences would be facing death."
- Julie Patzwald as Melinda, The Real World Movie: The Lost Season
The long-running reality series The Real World has been an MTV staple for more than a decade now, with its thirteenth season slated to begin airing in a matter of months. The recent success of The Osbournes aside, The Real World is probably the first series that immediately springs to mind whenever anyone thinks of MTV's original programming. Once the network dipped its toes into filmmaking, it only seemed natural that MTV would capitalize on its most recognizable commodity.
The Real World Movie: The Lost Season is the true story of seven strangers, picked to live in a house to find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real. Well, minus the 'true story' and 'real' parts, despite the Blair Witch-ish cards gingerly distributed throughout that claim otherwise. The setting this time around is Vancouver. The first few minutes are practically indistinguishable from an actual episode of The Real World, compressing the group's first two weeks into nine minutes. The cast consists of the usual one-note stereotypes. The first arrivals are Keith, a quiet musician, and the requisite bitch Liz, who hopes to propel herself from The Real World into the glitz and glamour of a C-list acting career in Tinseltown. Cash is an aspiring writer, which is a roundabout way of saying "unemployed", and he quickly develops a rapport with small-town girl Melinda. Adam, the brain-dead frat boy, quickly finds himself duking it out with Omara, the driven, headstrong minority. Finally, there's Boomer, a Buddhist skater with a penchant for faux-losophy. The Real World formula also demands that there be one gay character, but I probably shouldn't spoil everything.
Not among them is Roland, an inexplicably ardent fan of The Real World. Continually shot down despite submitting numerous taped auditions, Roland's decided that if he can't join The Real World, then The Real World would have to join him. Under the auspices of participating in a $50,000 challenge with other notable alumni of the series, the Vancouver cast is spirited off to Roland's meticulously constructed set. 132 cameras have been strategically placed throughout, and...gasp!...Roland has rigged the house to detonate on his command. Each of the reluctant cast members have also been given mini-cameras that are placed on their lapels, and the cameras too have been wired to explode. If the group doesn't indulge Roland's Real World fantasies, they risk a fate worse than cancellation.
There's a fine line between "satire" and "fucking stupid", and The Real World Movie: The Lost Season crosses it. I'm at a loss as to what it's trying to accomplish. I think it's supposed to be a comedy, but there's not a single laugh to be had for the entire interminable 85 minutes. Some portions are clearly intended to be suspenseful, but these attempts fall just as flat. As a 'love note' of sorts to fans, there are numerous references to past season, particularly the relationships that blossomed, but they don't make this feature-length bitter pill any more palatable. The movie runs just shy of an hour and a half, but it seems twice that length.
The acting's pretty weak across the board, especially whenever characters are supposed to be wrought with emotion. Perhaps the worst, though, are the wholly unnecessary shots of the Real World alumni who listlessly wait for the arrival of the Vancouver crew. These hopefully-improvised bits seem to represent comic relief, but...wow, I would've hoped that they'd shoot enough footage to be able to piece together something moderately entertaining. No such luck. The photography is similarly sloppy, particularly the headache-inducing 360 degree pans and the quick-cutting in Roland's 'Confessional'.
The Real World Movie: The Lost Season is a bad idea executed even more poorly than I ever could've expected. Its release on DVD is nearly as lackluster, featuring little in the way of supplemental material, and even the profanity and sparse nudity remain censored.
Video: The Real World Movie: The Lost Season juggles aspect ratios as it goes along. The 'official' production footage and shots from the lapel-cams are full-frame, and the cinematic remainder, beginning after the move to Roland's lair, are letterboxed to 1.78:1. Despite my intense hatred of the movie itself, I have to admit that it looks great on DVD. Some portions are limited by the source material, most notably the low resolution, green-tinted lapel-cam footage and a number of unusually soft establishing shots in Vancouver. Generally, though, the image is razor-sharp, boasting impressive levels of detail, strong blacks, and a varied, vivid palette.
Audio: Presented in Dolby Digital stereo (192Kbps), the audio doesn't offer much more than an incremental improvement over a cable broadcast. The surrounds occasionally buzz with activity, invariably from the music scattered throughout. Dialogue, such that it is, remains more or less clear for the duration, though I had trouble discerning lines periodically. There's substantially more bass than I'd expect from an MTV television show piped through coax, but it's limited to the music and isn't provided consistently. All in all, fairly unremarkable.
There are no alternate soundtracks, nor have closed captions or subtitles been provided.
Supplements: "Seven Strangers" is a set of biographies for each member of the 'cast'. The "Behind The Scenes Documentary", despite the length suggested by its title, runs just under five minutes. The fluffy, promotional featurette doesn't really include much of the making of the movie at all. Riddled with clips from The Lost Season, the featurette consists mostly of the cast introducing themselves and their characters, as well as producers John Murray and Mary-Ellis Bunim pretending that there's some merit to the concept. It's not really intended for people unfortunate enough to have actually sat through the movie.
The Real World Movie: The Lost Season has been divided into eight chapters. The disc features 4x3 menus, and the main menu is animated with brief snippets of footage from the movie.
Conclusion: On any other day, I probably would make some excruciatingly bad pun about how The Real World Movie: The Lost Season should've remained lost. I'll exercise better judgment and just say Skip It.
- Julie Patzwald as Melinda, The Real World Movie: The Lost Season
The long-running reality series The Real World has been an MTV staple for more than a decade now, with its thirteenth season slated to begin airing in a matter of months. The recent success of The Osbournes aside, The Real World is probably the first series that immediately springs to mind whenever anyone thinks of MTV's original programming. Once the network dipped its toes into filmmaking, it only seemed natural that MTV would capitalize on its most recognizable commodity.
The Real World Movie: The Lost Season is the true story of seven strangers, picked to live in a house to find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real. Well, minus the 'true story' and 'real' parts, despite the Blair Witch-ish cards gingerly distributed throughout that claim otherwise. The setting this time around is Vancouver. The first few minutes are practically indistinguishable from an actual episode of The Real World, compressing the group's first two weeks into nine minutes. The cast consists of the usual one-note stereotypes. The first arrivals are Keith, a quiet musician, and the requisite bitch Liz, who hopes to propel herself from The Real World into the glitz and glamour of a C-list acting career in Tinseltown. Cash is an aspiring writer, which is a roundabout way of saying "unemployed", and he quickly develops a rapport with small-town girl Melinda. Adam, the brain-dead frat boy, quickly finds himself duking it out with Omara, the driven, headstrong minority. Finally, there's Boomer, a Buddhist skater with a penchant for faux-losophy. The Real World formula also demands that there be one gay character, but I probably shouldn't spoil everything.
Not among them is Roland, an inexplicably ardent fan of The Real World. Continually shot down despite submitting numerous taped auditions, Roland's decided that if he can't join The Real World, then The Real World would have to join him. Under the auspices of participating in a $50,000 challenge with other notable alumni of the series, the Vancouver cast is spirited off to Roland's meticulously constructed set. 132 cameras have been strategically placed throughout, and...gasp!...Roland has rigged the house to detonate on his command. Each of the reluctant cast members have also been given mini-cameras that are placed on their lapels, and the cameras too have been wired to explode. If the group doesn't indulge Roland's Real World fantasies, they risk a fate worse than cancellation.
There's a fine line between "satire" and "fucking stupid", and The Real World Movie: The Lost Season crosses it. I'm at a loss as to what it's trying to accomplish. I think it's supposed to be a comedy, but there's not a single laugh to be had for the entire interminable 85 minutes. Some portions are clearly intended to be suspenseful, but these attempts fall just as flat. As a 'love note' of sorts to fans, there are numerous references to past season, particularly the relationships that blossomed, but they don't make this feature-length bitter pill any more palatable. The movie runs just shy of an hour and a half, but it seems twice that length.
The acting's pretty weak across the board, especially whenever characters are supposed to be wrought with emotion. Perhaps the worst, though, are the wholly unnecessary shots of the Real World alumni who listlessly wait for the arrival of the Vancouver crew. These hopefully-improvised bits seem to represent comic relief, but...wow, I would've hoped that they'd shoot enough footage to be able to piece together something moderately entertaining. No such luck. The photography is similarly sloppy, particularly the headache-inducing 360 degree pans and the quick-cutting in Roland's 'Confessional'.
The Real World Movie: The Lost Season is a bad idea executed even more poorly than I ever could've expected. Its release on DVD is nearly as lackluster, featuring little in the way of supplemental material, and even the profanity and sparse nudity remain censored.
Video: The Real World Movie: The Lost Season juggles aspect ratios as it goes along. The 'official' production footage and shots from the lapel-cams are full-frame, and the cinematic remainder, beginning after the move to Roland's lair, are letterboxed to 1.78:1. Despite my intense hatred of the movie itself, I have to admit that it looks great on DVD. Some portions are limited by the source material, most notably the low resolution, green-tinted lapel-cam footage and a number of unusually soft establishing shots in Vancouver. Generally, though, the image is razor-sharp, boasting impressive levels of detail, strong blacks, and a varied, vivid palette.
Audio: Presented in Dolby Digital stereo (192Kbps), the audio doesn't offer much more than an incremental improvement over a cable broadcast. The surrounds occasionally buzz with activity, invariably from the music scattered throughout. Dialogue, such that it is, remains more or less clear for the duration, though I had trouble discerning lines periodically. There's substantially more bass than I'd expect from an MTV television show piped through coax, but it's limited to the music and isn't provided consistently. All in all, fairly unremarkable.
There are no alternate soundtracks, nor have closed captions or subtitles been provided.
Supplements: "Seven Strangers" is a set of biographies for each member of the 'cast'. The "Behind The Scenes Documentary", despite the length suggested by its title, runs just under five minutes. The fluffy, promotional featurette doesn't really include much of the making of the movie at all. Riddled with clips from The Lost Season, the featurette consists mostly of the cast introducing themselves and their characters, as well as producers John Murray and Mary-Ellis Bunim pretending that there's some merit to the concept. It's not really intended for people unfortunate enough to have actually sat through the movie.
The Real World Movie: The Lost Season has been divided into eight chapters. The disc features 4x3 menus, and the main menu is animated with brief snippets of footage from the movie.
Conclusion: On any other day, I probably would make some excruciatingly bad pun about how The Real World Movie: The Lost Season should've remained lost. I'll exercise better judgment and just say Skip It.
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