After a night they don’t remember, college frat guys Grayson (Matt Cornett, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series) and Tyler (Ramon Reed, Incoming, 13: The Musical) find themselves in a room with Officer Montgomery (Missi Pyle, Galaxy Quest), arrested for public intoxication, destruction of school property, and disturbing the peace, among other things. They face expulsion if they don’t complete 120 hours of community service before the end of spring break in just 2 weeks. Not only would this prevent Grayson from graduating, but it would mess up the job and future he just lined up. Grayson is a smooth talker, always working some kind of an angle, and he gets the idea for them to volunteer as camp counselors for a religious sleepover camp, Camp Burning Bush. The only problem is that they hate kids, hate camping, and are not Christian. They will need to fake it if they’re going to avoid getting expelled.

Running the camp is Redemption Church’s Pastor Tom (Chris Klein, American Pie), who seems to fall for the guys’ over-the-top religious act, and gives them a chance. They soon meet the other counselors. There’s Becky (McKaley Miller, Hart of Dixie)—who is instantly smitten with Tyler and constantly hits on him; slightly goofy Dallas (Nathan Gamble, The Dark Knight); and Jenna (Brec Bassinger, Stargirl, Bella and the Bulldogs), who Grayson is attracted to, but soon discovers is the pastor’s daughter—and Tom is ready to squash any romance. The guys are also each assigned a camper to look after and mentor. Grayson is assigned to boisterous but sensitive Patrick (Brayden Gleave, Dexter: Original Sin), while Tyler is assigned to video game loving loner Shadow (Dominic Lopez, Chasing Christmas).

Can this camp experience change Grayson and Tyler into more responsible and caring adults? Can they keep their secret from coming to light. ruining their plan, and exposing their true, non-altruistic reason for volunteering at the camp?

I had never heard of Bad Counselors before it showed up for review. It is a fairly predictable and formulaic film. If you’ve seen any movie with a similar premise, the various acts and turns of events will be pretty obvious. While it won’t win any awards, the film is still entertaining and a solid watch for a weekend. The movie is set at a Christian camp, but isn’t overly religious or preachy. It is more about these characters who are always partying, scamming, and doing things the easy way learning to be less focused on themselves, that their actions can affect others, and how to be more responsible. While the film does have humorous moments, I wouldn’t say that it’s a laugh-out-loud riot, but it is still a fun watch. The characters are likable and entertaining, and the cast has good chemistry.

The film is rated PG-13, and I think it is something that could be watched with the whole family. There isn’t any sex or nudity, and just features some drinking at the beginning, which gets the guys into trouble. There’s also the mention of the word brothel later on, but doesn’t go into any more detail.

SDG Releasing/Alliance Home Entertainment have released Bad Counselors on physical media only on DVD, but the film is also available on Digital in HD. We were sent the DVD for review. The video presentation was good for a DVD, with a generally clean picture and pretty solid level of detail. It was just missing that extra level of clarity you get in an HD release. The audio track provides clear dialogue and makes nice use of the stereo and surround channels to give more of an immersive feel. Unfortunately the disc is barebones and doesn’t include any bonus material, or even the film’s trailer. The DVD disc is placed in a standard DVD keepcase—our review copy did not include a cardboard slipcover, and there is no digital copy with this release.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:37:18)

DVD:
• 480i / Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
• Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Digital
• Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:

This release does not include any bonus material.

Final Thoughts:

Bad Counselors is a solid but predictable film. If you’ve seen anything with a similar plot, you already know where it is going. That said, it has a nice cast with good chemistry. The film, which has only been released on DVD, is lacking that extra clarity of an HD release, but the overall the presentation is solid for a DVD. Unfortunately, the disc does not include any bonus material. I think It’s still worth a watch for fans of the cast or of this type of film. The movie is also currently streaming on the Angel streaming service for those who subscribe and want to check it out before a blind buy.