Reality television rears its ugly head in filmdom with the release of The Real Cancun. This movie is every bit as bad as the television that spawned it, and people who cannot get enough of it on television now have another venue. The Real Cancun is a mix of The Real World (it was made by the same people) and Big Brother. The concept is that sixteen young adults go to Cancun for Spring Break where they live together in a hotel for one week. There are cameras in every room capturing everything that happened. Then, the producers threw in a never-ending supply of alcohol and a variety of planned outings to see how low these people would go. The first lesson one can learn from The Real Cancun is that one doesn't even have to be a college student to go on Spring Break. At least two of the people here aren't. That's just pathetic.

There is a certain amount of morbid fascination watching these people. For little pay, they are willing to act like fools in front of the omnipresent careers, possibly to further their own potential acting careers. They talk and act like the camera isn't there, although most of what they talk about is pretty inane. The heart of the movie is Alan, whose initial comments are along the lines of "I want to see some boobies." Alan arrived never having drunk alcohol before, and his newfound friend immediately set about devising ways to get him drunk. The fact that he hasn't drunk isn't right or wrong, but he sure acts like a moron when asked to explain why. In general, he lacks many of the slicker social graces his housemates have.

Since there are sixteen people, many of the get the short end of the stick, barely appearing. Director Rick DeOliveria (whose only other directing experience is with Playboy) has a couple story threads culled from over a week of footage. Heidi and David have been platonic friends for a long time, and everybody except Heidi realizes that David has some deeper feelings. Nicole and Roxanne are twins from New Mexico who lose most of their clothes in a wet t-shirt contest (t-shirts optional). Paul is gunning for Sky, who seems intent on stringing him along. Laura sleeps with Jeremy, only to end up another notch in his headboard, and she has to watch as he goes about bedding another woman. Casey goes around asking if women want to make out with him.

Yes, it's one big soap opera, but not very interesting at all. To say this is the first 'reality' movie is wrong, since every documentary out there is real. And it's hard to see how everything is supposed to be spontaneous when producers handpicked these guinea pigs for maximum effect and basically throw them into situations where something will happen. The Real Cancun is merely an extension of television, except now with drinking, language, and nudity. (Yes, Alan does see boobies). At best (which is not very good at all), The Real Cancun is like watching somebody's raunchy vacation video.