Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Expected more

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This whole movie is a public service announcement from MADD and other teetotalers. Lousy acting, no story line. Nobody could drink the absurd amounts of alcohol (10 to 20 to 30 shots or more, night after night) that these 30-old "college students" drink. Somebody should tell Lifetime Movie Network that Prohibition was repealed 100 years ago. Stop with the propaganda already!

As the parent of a 12th-grade boy I found this movie credible and scary.The plot twists are easy to spot but that didn't bother me much. I knew that pretty Jessie Brenner (Reese Witherspoon-lookalike Sara Paxton) would party too hard, go to bed with users, wind up topless on the Internet, and find her debauched roommate Shanna (Chelsea Hobbs) dead from alcohol. I also foresaw that Jessie's mother, well-played by Nancy Travis, would finally make an embarrassing visit to campus.I think this movie nails the unpleasant conflicts that can erupt between parents and kids nearing adulthood. The elders have good reason to mistrust their children and boy, do the offspring resent them! I wondered whether the party atmosphere as depicted in the film was a little over-the-top, but that may reflect the fact that I am now 57 years old. I liked how Mrs. Brenner finally put her foot down, telling Jessie that if she made any grade under a C she wasn't going to pay the tuition. Excellent! From my current vantage point, it's scary to think of teenagers becoming alcoholic as they room together without supervision. Yet I must have faith that many undergrads realize they're in college for a reason.I watched this Lifetime movie with my 11-year-old son and it gave us an opportunity to look up on the Internet the penalties for being caught with a forged ID. (He wasn't thrilled about the discussion.) That research in itself was educative. Now, if I can only get my older son to listen while I (try to) explain...

and others who claim they want to intervene, when all the American media does is glamorize substance abuse.I'm not taking the moral road here, I lived it too, the person I was married to had to get better or die. This is not a reality TV show. It's real life for some people, and personally I'm sick of Hollywood celebrities talking about it.That being said, this movie is okay: Sarah Paxton portrays Jessie, new college freshman who just wants to fit in. She is shy so she drinks to fit in and become popular. Chelsea Hobbes is good here as party girl. Hard to believe in 2011 a male writer here calls the girl a "party slut" (hypocritically), but why is it okay for guys?.She at first does well in school, then gradually hanging out with her best friend Shanna, she parties out, even goes to San Diego, is in a video which somehow her mother finds (rather unrealistic, trawling the internet for these common videos could take years). But anyway. Nancy Travis is good as the Mom, who at first trusts her daughter, but then realizes the reality.The ongoing hypocrisy exists. There are many of these films made "A Reason to Believe" (1997)which also involved date rape. The fact is this exists, and the decision comes from within.It is understandable college students want to bond, and going out and partying is at first a fun release.No one can decide to stop drinking until they really want to. Some are addicts and cannot stop. If they are regular kids they end up dead in a frat house. If they are celebrities they end up on a boring Dr. Drew show. The fact is society in America has failed really on all fronts the war on drugs, drinking whatever. Most of it is political posturing.The only decent advice is talk to the student, if you are a friend, or anyone who cares about the person. Judgment doesn't help, the media doesn't help, intervention rarely helps. It's up to the individual.In the meantime don't watch reality garbage about Charlie Sheen and celebrities which continue to glamorize substance abuse. That's the problem in this country. Even people like Dr. Drew a medical doctor touting he wants to help the addict is really just making money off addiction (soon as I saw Mackenzie Phillips on his "HLN channel" show I turned it off).The fact is kids are going to do what they want especially away at school. The parent chooses to discuss it or not. The rest is your own reality.really no surprises here, other than the ending.

The star of the film is a beautiful blonde who is usually a goodie-two-shoes but is pressured to binge drink by her manipulative best friend. Watching this my own memories of college came back to me and I remembered my former best friend who also pressured me into similarly compromising situations. That being said and without giving away too much I was really pleased by the ending of the movie! It's also nice to think that girls as beautiful as Sara Paxton would actually experience adolescent angst and go for the slightly less attractive guy. The hilarious part of this movie is how it takes a G-Rated approach to such topics as underage drinking, drinking and driving, and public nudity. The result is this kind of clunky accidental comedy. For example, Sara Paxton's character states that she would never expose herself for a "Girls Gone Wild" type video, and you don't believe it but suddenly you KNOW that is exactly what will happen, and you even feel a little guilty for suddenly getting excited!