Starring: Miles Teller, Skylar Astin
Director: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
Writer: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
What a turd of a movie. I really didn't expect much out of this - the trailer reminded me a lot of Project X - a hollow, not-funny movie that tried too hard to be this generation's Animal House or hell, even Superbad. Here we get a lot of the same bad jokes and a lot of material that can be seen as racist and sexist. It's just a disappointing movie that takes itself too seriously at times when it shouldn't and makes fun of the more serious issues underlying these characters.
Miller and Casey are on their way to pick up their best friend from high school, Jeff Chang and make him party hard on his 21st birthday, even though he has a crucial job interview the next day. Of course they get shitfaced and end up living out an outrageous "adventure" that I guess I was supposed to envy or find funny but it did neither. The whole premise is piss poor - there's no way in hell a med student is going to just throw away a job opportunity to get bombed with some high school friends he barely talks with now (especially in this economy is what my mother would say!). And the other problem is that the whole movie hinges on them trying to find Jeff Chang's house after he passes out from too much alcohol even though they gave the cab directions to Chang's house! I'm sorry it was just too stupid for me to forgive in this movie.
And so the rest of the evening is spent mulling about campus trying to find his house. It's awful and the movie acts like smart phones don't exist (they couldn't scroll through emails or contacts to find something or someone that would have his address??). Maybe I'm old, but the film glorifies this party hard attitude - it's cool to get super drunk and puke on people and be complete assholes to women. And then when the movie does try to sober up and deliver actual serious issues (suicide, best friends falling apart, daddy issues) it rings hollow because the next scene involves them walking around campus with socks on their penises or something just as ridiculous.
21 & Over tries really hard to get your attention (it even starts out like The Hangover - did I mention this movie was written by the guys who wrote all three Hangover movies?). It's a bloated, shallow mess of a movie that wants to be Animal House or Superbad, but fails to even achieve a Sorority Boys level of hilarity.
Rating: Avoid Like the Plague!
1 comment:
Good review Colin. I'm with you on this. It was boring, not funny, and features characters that are unlikable as you could possibly get with a college flick.
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