Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Search Party Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman July 11, 2016

Search Party released overseas back in 2014 but was delayed stateside by about 18 months. That's never a good sign. While the movie isn't particularly awful, it's hardly at the top of the Comedy game, barely scraping by as a serviceable laugher with precious little originality in play. Director Scot Armstrong's film is sort of like The Hangover meets The Groomsmen, the story of three friends who find themselves on a wild, zany, and briefly naked adventure through life, love, and Mexico when one of them has his big day go big time wrong. Armstrong actually co-wrote The Hangover II, so a movie like Search Party is certainly not a stretch for him. That said, he doesn't stretch himself with Search Party, either, settling for middle-of-the-road laughs and generic gags through a fairly pedestrian set-up and execution. The cast is rather good, though, and the movie makes for a decent enough one-time watch.

Wedding crasher.

Nardo (Thomas Middleditch) is getting engaged. He's celebrating the only way he knows how, getting high with his friends Evan (Adam Pally) and Jason (T.J. Miller). While high, Nardo makes a confession: he loves his bride-to-be Tracy (Shannon Woodward), but he doesn't feel like he can be himself around her. That doesn't sit well with Jason. After a lengthy period of deep contemplation, Jason decides to save the day, crashing the wedding and breaking the couple up right at the altar. Tracy leaves in a fuss. Nardo finally goes after her. But rather than get the girl, he gets mugged. He loses his wheels and his clothes. He's stranded, naked, in Mexico, and has no choice but to call Jason and Evan to bail him out. The two head for the border but discover the road trip to pick up their friend isn't as easy, and certainly not as uneventful, as a Sunday drive.

Search Party wraps itself round classic Stoner movie characteristics. Weed, in fact, plays pivotal to setting the plot in motion. But the movie at least efforts to find something beyond the high, to try and say something about friendship, that it doesn't have to be fractured by love. Of course, themes are tucked neatly away under layers of laughs, some of which hit, many of which misfire by no fault of their own but rather by sheer genre repetition that's diluted the effectiveness of standard genre hi-jinx. While not everything that happens in the movie happens predictably, nothing happens surprisingly. Search Party cannot treat its audience to anything that's really, truly new. It settles, and comfortably so, it seems, for second-rate comedy, classic humor-laden escapism that seems to know its place and never really tries to break free from the lower tiers of the genre rankings. That leaves it more comfortable than uneasy as it plays out, content to settle for simple entertainment rather than futile pushing for something more than it can reasonably deliver.

One of the great determining factors of success for a movie of this sort -- success defined rather broadly, as in "making the movie watchable and occasionally funny" -- is the enthusiasm the cast brings to the film. If they're not game, the movie's going to flatline. That's not the case here. Miller, Pally, and Middleditch embrace the film's tone wholeheartedly, giving the laughs -- verbal and physical alike -- an honest effort. They don't overplay but instead work hard to present a unified, though sometimes cracking, friendship of deep bonds that hold them together even when their actions and words sometimes seem to speak louder than their history together. If Search Party gets anything right, and in its screenplay in particular, it's in defining the friends, supported by the actors' portrayal thereof, with enough heart and a tangible center to carry them, and the viewer, through the mayhem, to lend it some weight and nudge the audience to cheer for the best possible outcome rather than suffer through a slog of unbelievable relationships working through increasingly absurd antics. Search Party may not be Comedy at its finest, but its center is strong enough to carry the wishy-washy frivolities that give it shape.

Search Party Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Search Party's 1080p transfer gets the job done. Despite some light, and largely inconsequential, interference from source noise, the image looks fairly good overall. The digital roots are impossible to miss. There's a glossy and fairly flat texture to the canvas, but the resultant detail and color yield is high. Textures are robustly defined, presenting intricacies across the board -- skin, clothes, dusty Mexican terrain, classy wedding accents -- with natural ease. Image clarity is consistent, and only briefly do parts of the image appear smudgy or smeary. Colors are healthy and many, pushed a bit to the warmer end to be sure. Saturation is excellent, punchy primaries pop, black levels hold deep enough, and flesh tones appear fine, if not skewed a little to the warm end.

Search Party Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Search Party's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack is like a tale of two halves. The film's opening half is rather mundane, technically sound to be sure but seriously front-heavy and without much sense of place, space, or aggression, either from the surrounds or from the subwoofer. The film's second half, while not a full-throttle, endlessly engaging, and totally immersive experience, does open up quite a bit. Surrounds pick up several bursts of gunfire, resulting in stronger multidirectional and speaker-specific sonic highlights. The subwoofer kicks in with a bit of weight during an explosion. Light ambient effects don't widen considerably at any point, leaving quieter moments feeling a bit more empty than they should. Dialogue delivery is fine, presenting with natural front-center placement and consistent prioritization over other sound elements.

Search Party Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Search Party contains no supplemental content. A voucher for a UV/iTunes digital copy is included with purchase.

Search Party Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Search Party doesn't inject any new life into the Comedy genre, but it's a decent, if not a bit over stale, Road Trip/Buddy/Stoner comedy that offers a few laughs inside a serviceable story. Performances are the strength; audiences can get behind the characters, which is paramount to any sort of success a movie of this sort might enjoy. Don't expect the world from it, and chances are it'll satisfy the itch for a passable time killing Comedy. Universal's featureless Blu-ray offers good video and audio that picks up in the second half. Rent it.