Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this hilarious but extremely raunchy comedy from the director of Old School is decidedly not for younger teens. Let's face it: The movie's whole premise involves drinking and being drugged. There's lots of comedic violence, sex, substance abuse, and over-the-top language. While you could stretch and suggest that there's a message about friendship and responsibility, that's like suggesting that Twinkies and soda contain some vitamin C. Still, this movie is turning out to be the teen buzz movie of the summer of 2009. Parents also need to know that this review is for the rated version of this film.
Sexual
Content
Extensive male and female nudity, including nude buttocks and breasts. Discussion of sexual acts, techniques, and one character's work as an "escort." Photos of nudity and explicit sexual acts (including glimpsed male genitalia) in the closing-credits montage. Explicit discussions of infidelity, one-night stands, and other acts. Mimed mock bestiality for comedic effects. A character notes that he cannot be within 200 yards of "A school ... or a Chuck E. Cheese," implying that he's on some kind of serial offender watchlist.
Violence
Beatings, vehicular mayhem, the use of stun guns on "volunteers" in front of children (with children, in two cases, operating the stun guns/tazers), beatings with crowbars, and a gunshot wound to an innocent bystander. One character spends much of the film lamenting an excised tooth -- a bleeding, gaping wreck of a lost incisor. Some gunplay. A baby is hit in the head with a car door and is present during a few scenes of peril.
Language
Extensive, inventive, and constant vulgarity, including "f--k" and its derivations, "ass," "f--got," "douchebag," "whore," "gay," "hell," "shaft," "s--t," "Jesus," "semen," "retard," "bitch," "goddamn," "oh my God," "butt," "weenus," "bastard," "balls," "assholes," "nuts,"Â and much, much more.
Social
Behavior
The movie's message is, at best, a little muddled; while the three main characters pay a price for their misadventures -- beatings, dehydration, sunburn, and more -- everything works out well in the end.
Consumerism
Mentions and on-screen display of brands includes many mentioned as plot points, including Caesar's Palace, Mercedes-Benz, Chuck E. Cheese, Rogaine, Monster Energy Drink, Gremlins, Indiana Jones, Rain Man, Jagermeister, Carnival Cruises, and more.
Drugs / Tobacco /
Alcohol
The entire film revolves around excessive drinking and drug abuse. Characters drink beer, wine, and hard liquor to excess. A character thinks he's giving his friends Ecstasy without their consent but is, in fact, giving them "Roofies," the "date rape drug." Mentions of cocaine, crystal meth, and crank abuse. Drunk driving is implied. Photos in the closing-credits montage depict cocaine use. Reference to marijuana. It's worth noting that the brutal consequences of drug and alcohol abuse -- aches, memory loss, vomiting, humiliation, and despair -- are depicted unflinchingly.