Hard “R”-rated comedies continue their resurgence with 2011’s A Good Old Fashioned Orgy. Nearly 30-year-old Eric (Jason Sudeikis) uses his dad’s (Don Johnson) resort house for many raucous bashes. Alas, the literal party looks like it’ll come to an end when Eric’s pop decides to sell the place.

To send off the summer – and the good times – with a bang, Eric proposes that he and his friends indulge in an orgy. Initially only his sloppy friend McCrudden (Tyler Labine) and his high school girlfriend Sue (Michelle Borth) agree, but eventually he wins over his other pals. We follow preparation for the big Labor Day weekend fling – and how Eric may have to choose between his decadent party and his burgeoning relationship with realtor Kelly (Leslie Bibb).

Why do I get the feeling that the development of the film essentially started and stopped with the title? Maybe all involved felt the flick’s provocative moniker was enough and they didn’t need anything else. Hey, if a wacky name like A Good Old Fashioned Orgy isn’t enough to put butts in the seat, what will?

Maybe a comedy with some actual funny moments? While I can’t say Orgy comes totally devoid of humor, it’s pretty close. At best, the film generates an occasional weak chuckle. Despite the nuttiness of its premise and various elements, they fail to make a mark.

Given the presence of decent comedic talents like Sudeikis, Will Forte and Lucy Punch, it’s fairly remarkable that Orgy provides so little actual amusement. Punch almost single-handedly brought humor to the otherwise pretty limp Bad Teacher, Sudeikis was solid in Horrible Bosses, and Forte even helped turn a potentially second-rate action parody into a fairly funny flick.

So why can’t they or any of the other actors create any real comedy here? That’s a question I can’t answer, though the responsibility comes back to writers/directors Peter Huyck and Alex Gregory. As we learn in their commentary, a lot of the events shown in the film were inspired by their real lives. Perhaps these were moments that fell into the “funny at the time” category but didn’t translate to the screen.

They sure aren’t particularly funny in the final flick. Heck, Orgy can’t even deliver enough enjoyable nudity to make it worthwhile from that point of view. It turns into a consistently dull, ordinary comedy with precious few laughs on display.

Footnote: a few tidbits pop up during the credits, so stick around for those.

A Good Old Fashioned Orgy appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. The movie offered a positive transfer.

Only minor issues affected sharpness. Occasional wide shots a little iffy, but those were infrequent. The majority of the film seemed accurate and concise. No problems with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and edge enhancement was absent. As for print flaws, I saw an occasional speck but nothing more than that.

As for the film’s palette, it went with natural tones. These consistently looked lively and vivid. Blacks appeared deep and firm, while shadows seemed clear and well-developed. I felt pretty pleased with this generally fine SD-DVD transfer.

Orgy provided a pretty low-key “comedy mix” with its Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Even when it went into bars or parties, the track stayed restrained. The mix tended to feel somewhat drab and without much pep. It contributed a decent sense of place but nothing more interesting.

Audio quality seemed fine. Speech was concise and natural, with no edginess or other distractions. Music showed acceptable clarity, while effects were clean and reasonably accurate. Again, there wasn’t much to make the track stand out, but it was adequate for its genre.

We get a mix of extras here. These launch with an audio commentary from writers/directors Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck and actor Jason Sudeikis. All three sit together for this running, screen-specific discussion of cast and performances, sets and locations, story/character areas and real-life influences, shooting on a low budget and short timeline, editing and deleted scenes, music and a few other areas.

At times, we get too much praise and banal comments. Nonetheless, the track usually works fairly well. Even with all the happy talk, we discover a nice array of notes, especially when we hear of the movie’s real-life influences. Though not a consistently strong piece, it’s worth a listen.

10 Deleted Scenes fill a total of 16 minutes, 20 seconds. A lot of these offer little extensions to existing sequences, and we also get a bit more character exposition, particularly in terms of the film’s female roles. Some of them allow the movie to make a bit more sense – like a discussion of potential dates – but nothing especially interesting arrives. Still, if you like the movie, you’ll want to give these a look.

Next comes a Gag Reel. It goes for four minutes, 56 seconds and shows the usual allotment of silliness. Actually, it includes more alternate footage than normal, so that makes it more interesting than the average blooper collection, but don’t expect anything special.

For a look behind the scene, we go to a featurette called How to Film An Orgy. It runs eight minutes, 27 seconds as it provides remarks from Gregory, Sudeikis, Huyck, and actors Lin Shaye, David Koechner, Lucy Punch, Tyler Labine, Lake Bell, Nick Kroll, Leslie Bibb, Will Forte, Angela Sarafyan, Martin Starr, Michelle Borth and Lindsay Sloane. “Film” gives us notes about the flick’s development, cast and performances, and some general thoughts about the shoot. This gives us a pretty fluffy piece, though some good footage from the set helps make it reasonably enjoyable.

The disc opens with ads for Driver, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star and Hostel Part III. These also appear under Previews. No trailer for Orgy pops up here.

With an intriguing premise for a comedy and a solid cast, A Good Old Fashioned Orgy showed promise. Unfortunately, it did little with its concept and participants, so it ended up as a surprisingly mirthless affair. The DVD provides good picture and supplements along with average audio. Fans of “R”-rated comedy can do better than this forgettable flick.