(USA, 93 min.)
Written and directed by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore
Starring: Miles Teller, Skylar Astin, Justin Chon, Sarah
Wright, Jonathan Keltz, François Chau.
 |
| Skylar Astin, Justin Chon and Miles Teller star in 21 & Over |
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear
Jeff Chang,
Happy Birthday to you!
Jeff Chang (Twilight’s Justin Chon) celebrates his twenty-first birthday in style in the new teen gonzo movie 21 and Over. Jeff Chang is turning 21 (even though Chon is actually 32), so his high school buddies Miller (Miles Teller, Project X) and Casey (Skylar Astin, Pitch Perfect) visit him at his Ivy League-ish university so that they can celebrate his legal drinking age. Unfortunately, though, Jeff Chang (never referred to as “Jeff”) has his all-important medical school interview the morning after his b-day. Ergo, this is not a good day to go on a birthday bender.
In the vein of all good teen comedies, however, Jeff Chang
succumbs to peer-pressure and he agrees to celebrate by having “just one
drink.” Miller and Casey take Jeff Chang on a wild night and the birthday boy
gets catatonically drunk. The trio drag Jeff Chang on a campus pub-crawl as
they try to find somebody who might know where Jeff Chang lives. Naturally, the
trip home turns into an Animal House
night of drinking games, sorority sexcapades, and a run-in with a wild bull.
All the while, the trio must evade Jeff Chang’s tight-assed dad (François Chau)
and fight for a hook-up with a perky sorority girl named Nicole (Sarah Wright).
21 and Over, with
its framed narrative and night of drunken debauchery, is basically a revisit to
The Hangover for a younger audience.
Written and directed by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the scribes of the original Hangover film, 21 and Over offers more booze-fuelled lunacy and adolescent
hijinks. Part Hangover with a few
borrowings from Weekend at Bernie’s and
American Pie, 21 and Over is a decent escape.
21 and Over is, at
its heart, a simple buddy comedy. As Miller and Casey drag Jeff Chang’s limp
body around the campus, they repair the distance that has grown between them
since the three parted ways after high school. Miller (an arrogant boor) and
Casey (an uptight Momma’s Boy) are an odd-couple, but they are united by
nostalgia and shared experiences. As Nicole notes during one of her barroom
run-ins with the boys, one’s weirdest friends are always one’s oldest friends. Nicole’s
observation has a charming bit of truth: one can have virtually nothing in
common with someone save for the fact you went to the same high school, but
certain friendships last thanks to crazy nights like the misadventures of Jeff
Chang’s birthday.
The college-set binge drinking seems a bit over-exaggerated
compared to my Aberdeen days, but 21 and
Over is well at home with other university coming-of-age tales. It’s
sometimes funny, in a crass, juvenile way. 21 and Over is at its best when it puts the friends in absurdly
larger-than-life scenarios that test the limits of their friendship, but the
film falls into tasteless aggravation just as often. The highlights of 21 and Over are merely ok and its low-points are roaring thuds. It’s too bad that much of
humour relies on racist stereotypes and sexist pranks, since there is plenty of
funny situational humour in 21 and Over.
Film fans who cried chauvinism during Seth MacFarlane’s stint at the Oscars
might best avoid the movie, but those who enjoy lowbrow comedy will guffaw
through the night.
21 and Over opens Friday, March 1st.
