21 & Over Review: Lazy Hangover Rehash Offers Few Rewards
rating: 1.5
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21 & Over might be the brainchild of writer-directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore - who may as well change their names by deed poll to "the writers of The Hangover" - but the marketing conveniently forgets that they're also writers of Four Christmases, Ghost of Girlfriends Past, The Hangover Part II and The Change-Up. Though its premise derives shamelessly from the former success, this stillborn 20-something comedy has more in common with the execrable majority of the team's output. Indeed, the premise to this film is virtually identical to The Hangover at a core level, but that's really where the similarities begin and end. College student Jeff Chang (Justin Chon) has just turned 21 years old, and his two old high school buddies, the sensible, smart Casey (Skylar Astin) and the mental troublemaker Miller (Miles Teller), unexpectedly turn up on his doorstep for a night of heavy partying. Naturally, things get way out of hand before long, and the trio have to scrape through a number of increasingly extreme situations. It is pure, lazy formula. Think of it as The Hangover for teens (20-somethings will connect far more with Todd Phillips' film), with a dash of Harold and Kumar (Jeff has a med-school interview to attend the next day), a slice of American Pie (a litany of horny young men gags), and a tipple of Road Trip (Jeff's disapproving father soon enough gets a whiff of what's going on, and tries to stop it). The real issue with 21 & Over isn't that it's unoriginal, though, it's that it's scornfully mean-spirited; Teller's character is, as the kids might say, a particularly annoying douche, essentially a thin version of Jonah Hill's character from Superbad, right down to having the same sense of separation anxiety towards his friends.