Entertainment

THE ‘REAL’ THING – SPRING BREAK REALITY FLICK MORE THAN JUST DRUNK COLLEGE KIDS

THE REAL CANCUN [ ½]

Party hearty. Running time: 90 minutes. Rated R (strong sexuality/nudity, language and partying). At E-Walk, Orpheum, Kips Bay, others.

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THE big surprise about “The Real Cancun,” the first movie to take the white-hot reality TV craze to the next level, is that it actually works as a sometimes funny, occasionally scandalous, but mostly involving narrative.

There are heroes and villains, jocks and nerds, bad girls and not-quite-so-bad girls, all the characters you’d expect to find in a scripted teen sex comedy – except that the dialogue flows naturally, the relationships are organic, and there’s a genuine warmth in the group interactions that can’t be faked.

Naturally, fans of raunchy reality TV will think they’ve died and gone to heaven, with the film’s R rating allowing the filmmakers to up the ante on debauchery that can only be hinted at on the small screen.

And so the orgiastic revelry of spring break can be shown in all its “glory” – there’s plenty of nudity and cursing, a wet T-shirt contest that quickly devolves into a writhing, nearly naked free-for-all, and sneak peeks into the bedrooms via an infrared surveillance camera.

But the producers of “The Real Cancun” – Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray, who helped pioneer reality TV 11 years ago with “The Real World” – were smart: First, for casting 16 diverse but equally uninhibited personality types and, second, for putting them in a clearly defined, inevitably provocative environment.

Over the course of eight days while staying at the same tony hotel in Cancun, Mexico, the “characters” each undergo a kind of “dramatic arc,” some more entertainingly than others.

Hence, we are privy to more than just a bunch of college kids behaving badly – percolating beneath the sun-soaked, tequila-drenched shenanigans are issues of sexual jealousy, infidelity and coming-of-age concerns, as well as an honest-to-God, possibly life-changing romance.

The filmmakers followed the 16 college students 24/7 with over 100 cameras, occasionally stirring the dramatic pot by sending in an early-morning mariachi band to wake the hungover revelers, taking them to swim with the dolphins, or organizing a Snoop Dogg concert with thousands of hard-partying “extras.”

The cast members appear almost interchangeable at first (it’s particularly hard to tell the bikini-clad blondes apart), but distinct personalities quickly emerge.

Alan, the “Anthony Michael Hall character,” is indisputably the star of the show. He’s a shy, almost painfully straight 18-year-old from Rowlett, Texas, who – shock! horror! – doesn’t drink.

“If I go to a party, I’ll have a glass of milk,” he explains during the brief introductory interviews, and then proclaims, “I don’t want to ruin my soberness” when his fellow cast members try to coax him to “the dark side.”

Of course, it’s only a matter of time before he’s downing his first tequila shot and hitting on girls, and his awkward grappling with this smorgasbord of new experiences forms the film’s emotional core – and generates the biggest laughs.

If “The Real Cancun” were a black-and-white silent film, Jeremy would be the villain with the handlebar moustache.

The handsome 22-year-old from Mesa, Ariz., declares early on that “girls go on spring break to meet guys like me” before embarking on a gleeful sex spree, breaking hearts with abandon.

Director Rick De Oliveira does a good job of chasing down the subplots through the maze of booze-fueled bacchanalia, zeroing in on those with a developing story: Heidi and David, lifelong friends from Massachusetts whose relationship is poised to move beyond the platonic; Matt and Sara, who bond early over a jellyfish sting; and Paul and Sky, whose sassy courtship tango forms one of the more interesting storylines.

No one’s gunning for an Oscar here, obviously, but those who expected the first reality movie to mark the beginning of the end of civilized society as we know it may be surprised.