'Blue Mountain State' movie gives fans what they want

Fans of “Blue Mountain State” (2010-2011), Spike TV’s ridiculous satire of football culture at state colleges, rejoice! After departing with the show's almost-inexplicable cancellation after three seasons, the Mountain Goats are back for a last big hurrah with “Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland” (2016), a feature-length homage that brings back a lot of old faces and classic jokes.

Watching this movie without having first seen the TV series is doable, but inadvisable. Many of the supporting characters' jokes that will have fans rolling on the floor will leave those not in the know scratching their heads or cradling their stomachs. The writers, Eric Falconer, Alan Ritchson and Chris Romano (aka Romanski), did a good job of bringing in just about every supporting character from the series, even those who had left early on, making sure every fan gets a bit of their favorite shenanigans. Sammy (Romanski) is obsessed with being the mascot, Harmon (James Cade) is the druggy of druggies and Larry (Omari Newton) is still a hilarious sidekick.

The real star, of course, is the man himself, Thad Castle (Alan Ritchson). Everything hinges on the hilarious, larger-than-life personality of this living, breathing caricature. This movie is an experiment in taking the Thad character to the least (most?) logical extreme possible and reveling in the carnage that ensues.

There are plenty of subplots in “Thadland,” and most of them have nothing to do with the overarching plot of the movie. In fact, what little there is of an overarching plot is purely a device on which to hang the numerous antics documented for this film. A decent portion of the movie is dedicated to trippy montages of a carnival that can only be described as the hellish combination of the dreams of a six-year-old and an over-sexed young adult — some of the results are absolutely terrifying, while others, like a hot tub full of mojitos, almost sound like good ideas (emphasis on almost). With these images in mind, overlay some color filters to simulate the actual drug trips of the characters and you have a decent idea of what the film looks like.

Throwing this kind of deranged carnival may seem like a strange way to save the football team’s club house, but that is exactly the reasoning behind it. A lot of the motivations surrounding the movie are unclear. For the writers and the fans, the central motivation is to have a satisfying close to Alex Moran’s (Darin Brooks) college career — the show followed this character from his first day at Blue Mountain State college. For the characters who do everything in defiance of common sense, the motivations are more muddled. In the end, it turns out that the team cannot save their house, so they blow it up — perhaps the most logical cause and effect sequence in the whole movie.

The humor is not for everyone. While it seems to be done in good faith and as a satire of the machismo and bravado of state college football culture (whatever that is, to begin with), much of the behavior and language is easily construed as misogynistic. Viewers just have to remember that the writers and actors are consciously doing exactly what nobody should do.

Despite its absurdity, there are apparently enough people that are fans of the humor — the movie was largely funded by a Kickstarter campaign, taking in $1.5 million from enthusiastic fans. Originally slated for a September 2015 release, "Blue Mountain State" was pushed back due to an initial NC-17 rating. Now rated R, the movie was released online by Lionsgate on Feb. 2 and is available from the usual crowd of online streaming services.