Amazon.com: Spring Breakers (DVD + UltraViolet Digital Copy) : James Franco, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, Gucci Mane, Heather Morris, Ashley Lendzion, Sidney Sewell, Thurman Sewell, Harmony Korine, Chris Hanley, Jordan Gertner, David Zander, Charles-Marie Anthonioz, Harmony Korine: Movies & TV

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• 5.0 out of 5 stars I always wanted to be bad.

  Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2013

  I wouldn't recommend reading this unless you've seen the film.

  The bright sun glistens off the bright blue water as the warm sand squishes between your toes. Laughter and joyful screams fill the air. The beer funnel is full again and you're up next. "Woooo!" echoes throughout the beach. Smiles surround you and everyone is inviting. This is Spring break. This is the dream. Though just as all dreams do it is sure to come to an abrupt end. Bright lights and neon swim wear can only last so long before the harsh world comes bounding upon you. How far would you go to make it last? What would you be willing to do in order to have spring break forever? These are just a few of the questions Harmony Korine posits in his newest effort Spring Breakers. A study on the youth culture today and how amoral and corrupt just having fun can become.

  Korine's nonlinear editing is a thing of genius here and really drives the film on. The constant foreshadowing and hints of the future assure that the tension never lets up and the view is never able to be at ease. Something isn't right here. Even through all the partying and seeming happiness something darker lies just beneath the surface. It will not be all laughter and smiles. Something will go very wrong. This feeling is met with truth as the film unfolds. Korine uses erratic dubstep music and quick cuts to illustrate the ever decomposing attention span of today's youth, then slowly eases the film into a more lingering and abstract statement on the moral decay of society at large.

  Selena Gomez and Rachel Korine do well with what they have to work with. Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson and James Franco however knock their parts out of the park. In particular Hudgens and Franco.

  Hudgens' Candy is so disconnected from reality that when a friend who she's known since kindergarten is fearful for their lives and wants to go back home her first instinct is to roll her eyes. Her constant finger gun shooting is very telling. She wants to "have fun" and do whatever she wants no matter the cost. Life to her is a video game. A movie. Drugs, alcohol, mindless robbing, unlimited money and no consequences. Sound familiar? Almost like a description for the newest Grand Theft Auto video game. This is her perception. This is how she makes the world around her. This is her reality. A girl making out with another girl and dancing raunchy is considered edgy and when she sees this happening at a party her reaction is to gyrate around and scream in joy. Something that many girls would do as well, but this is only a small glimpse into her psyche. It's not the act that excites her it is the fact that it is edgy and considered by some to be wrong. Money excites her because of the power it brings with it. She, several times, becomes aroused in the presence of money. Of all the girls she is the one who seems to be the first and most accepting of Alien and his lifestyle. After Cotty has been shot and tells Brit and Candy that spring break is over Candy again seems to not care. Just as Faith wanting to go home this only interrupts Candy's fun. She just wants this annoyance to be over. Get back to the fun stuff. Get back to being bad.

  "I always wanted to be bad." A statement made by Franco's Alien that completely defines his character. Guns, drugs, money and power are his American Dream. Alien's idea of having fun is robbing spring breakers and blowing tons of money at strip clubs. He is gangster rap fully realized and defined. As he tells the girls he is a hustler and a rapper. It is quite important that he lists them in that order. It's as if being a rapper comes with the territory of being a hustler and plays second fiddle to it. The idea that all gangsters and hustlers are also rappers means he has to be one as well. Music is not his first love nor why he does this. He just wants to be bad and rappers are "bad" so he must do it. Scarface is the ultimate bad guy so it plays on repeat in his house. He surrounds himself with what he sees as bad. The necessities of being a bad guy. Just as when he is explaining his back story he says it's the same old sob story. It doesn't matter. All that matters is being the baddest guy he can be. There doesn't have to be a reason why other than he simply wants to be. This is his ultimate downfall.

  Spring Breakers is worth seeing for Franco's performance alone. Hudgens performance, Harmony Korine's brilliant direction and hyper sensual style are just the icing on the cake. After seeing this for the second time it only got better. I expect the third time will only reveal more about this masterwork.

  10/10.

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• 5.0 out of 5 stars A True Gift to the World

  Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2013

  Let's face it, if you're looking into this movie you probably fall into one of two categories. You either want to watch topless partying and delight in the perversion of wholesome Disney characters, or you're just looking for a damn fine film. I suppose you could be one of the latter and still look forward to in-your-face nudity, but let's face it, unless you frequent Girls Gone Wild releases, spending 90 minutes watching bouncing flesh is not how you try to educate your mind with eye-opening genius. I like nudity as much as the next guy, but it can't advance a plot very well. And I imagine 90% of the 1-Star reviews here are from people looking for mindless entertainment supported by a semi-competent story. Instead, with Spring Breakers you get a moving picture of rich hues matching sound, pulsating beats layering words, and a half-waking hang-over of a dream. A formula for art, yes. A formula for popcorn and witty one-liners, no.

  Harmony Korine manages to pull off a truly spectacular feet by capturing the viewer's senses and taking control of one's perception. The only other guy that takes me for a ride as well as Korine with this film would be that of a film by David Lynch. In fact, how I felt watching this movie was like a hard blending of Wild at Heart's weirdness, mixed with (Baz Luhrmann) Romeo + Juliet's musical cadence of action and words, and all of it boiling over into a hyper-real context a-la KIDS. Spring Breakers does play like a dream, as many have mentioned before. And it works (if you let it). One element that I found to be true genius was the occasional flash of detail that presented as a mystery and at the same time a clue to the story's future. Like a bloody finger playing the key of a piano, while the cause for that blood is only revealed a short time later. But the anticipation, the confusion, the answer, it all leads to an exhilarating result. I want to follow where that blood is going, find where it came from, to follow the rabbit to see what the party is.

  Spring Breakers has plenty of girls, guns, clichés, and trick edits to make any summer watch list. But the way all of these elements are presented, bombarding the viewer (and the listener), is what it's all about. What it does for you. Each character, each act, each plot (or lack there-of), all work seamlessly together to present you with an experience. Don't go into this looking for a by-the-numbers entertainment device. This truly is art. Not the boring "I don't get it" no matter how much I see. No, this is simple art. The eyes and ears of moments strung together with feelings of excitement, enticement, enrichment. None of it works on its own. But all of it works, if you let it.

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