If you think 21 and Over looks like The Hangover, there's a good reason: the writers, Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, are the directors and writers for this movie. Instead of having best friends looking for a missing friend, this time it's college-themed, so the friends have to get their drunk BFF home before his med school admission interview the next day. The only catch is that he isn't telling them his address - he's too drunk to be coherent - so the friends have to retrace their steps and find someone who knows it.
Casey (Skyler Astin) and Miller (Miles Teller) have reunited at the college of their best friend, Jeff Chang (Justin Chon), to surprise him for his 21st birthday. However, his super-strict dad, Dr. Chang (Francois Chau), coldly informs them that Jeff has his med school admission interview tomorrow, and will not be going out partying with them. Once his dad leaves, though, they manage to convince Jeff to go out with them for one drink; as in any good party movie, though, one drink is never what it sounds like, and soon Jeff Chang - always called Jeff Chang by his buddies, never just Jeff - is definitely not sober anymore. Casey and Miller have to figure out how to get him back to his house, except there's one problem ... they don't know his address.
The beginning of the film didn't start out promisingly, but after they all become drunk, it starts to get better. Parts of it were really accurate about college life, in my opinion, and parts definitely weren't; in one scene, they go to a party at a dorm that one of the RA's (Residential Advisors) were throwing, which would never happen in real life because dorms are technically owned by their colleges. The movie has everything from male nudity to a super slo-mo vomit scene (not really my thing ... does anyone like seeing that?), most likely because it's catering to the 18-30 demographic. I was also kind of disappointed because I loved Skyler Astin in the recent Pitch Perfect, and Miles Teller in the Footloose remake, and both of those movies were way better than this one.
Maybe see this movie. If you like films like The Hangover, you might like this one, although in my opinion Hangover was much better. I'm thinking maybe the actors were even told to make their mannerisms and acting similar to The Hangover, because the lead in this one, Justin Chon (Eric from Twilight, actually), had an eerie resemblance to Ken Jeong in the way he laughed maniacally in some scenes and played crazy throughout the whole film. Originally I was going to give this film 2 out of 5 stars and a No review, but parts were actually funny, so it gets a 2.5 star rating and a Maybe instead.
21 and Over is in theaters today, March 1st, and is rated R with a runtime of 93 minutes. 2.5 stars out of 5.
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Liz Parker is a University of Michigan graduate with a degree in Creative Writing and Literature, and she loves going to the movies. Visit her at her movie blog Yes/No Films
