I’ve been spending my off time watching a fascinating documentary series on Netflix entitled “The Story of Film: An Odyssey”. Here’s a link. It is a 15 part mammoth production by Irish film critic Mark Cousins that chronicles the entire history of cinema starting in the late 1800s with footage of workers leaving a factory and ending with the stunning technical achievements of “Avatar”.
On Wednesday I watched Episode 7 which covers the beginning of Modern Film-making as Bergman and Fellini begat Godard and Truffaut and so forth. The reason why I bring this up is two-fold:
1) I would like you to seek this show out if you are a fan of the movies (which considering you’re reading this I’d put 8 bucks down on “Yes you are”).
2) I wanted to warn you that the notion of Cinema as a living, breathing art form is the worst idea to occupy your brain with right before you see “21 and Over”.
Now I am a firm believer in there being a time and place for all sorts of movies. I do not think that film should only provoke deep thought and I’m more than aware that the makers of this flick were probably not striving for High Art but “21 and Over” strives for nearly nothing. It is a fleeting entertainment focused directly on a crowd made up of kids firmly below the age of 21. But these films can be more than just a stream of “I want to F your sister” jokes, can’t they? They can at least be viewed a few years after their release and still contain a chuckle or two, right? I will be shocked if anyone will care about or even remember this film in 12 months’ time.
And it is not that the men behind “21 and Over” don’t know how to make a comedy with some staying power. First time directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore both co-wrote the screenplay for “The Hangover” which is probably the last American Comedy that made any noise. That film held humor for people of all walks of life: My mother and father-in-law can watch it and cry laughing while a 14 year old boy has plenty to giggle about too. Like the carbon copy sequel to “The Hangover” (which Lucas and Moore had nothing to do with), “21 and Over” touches on many of the same elements but falls short of humor.
I can guess the 3 second pitch was “The Hangover” meets “A Weekend at Bernie’s”. 2 kids meet up to surprise their friend at college on his birthday. All three friends have grown apart. One’s a loud mouth Alpha type, the other is a straightened- up future Wall Street Warrior. The one turning 21 has an important medical exam early the next morning but they go out and party besides this fact. Chaos ensues.
While “The Hangover” skips to the next morning, this time we see the “Crazy Night” and its entire nuance. Accidental darts to the face. Blind folded sorority girls making out. A Pep rally featuring a pissed off buffalo. And Beer pong. Plenty of beer pong. As these incidents get stringed together the characters have mini-moments of clarity that are supposed to signify some sort of personal growth that should hint at a character arch but it never really pans out.
I did laugh a couple of times and the young stars here have enough charisma I suppose. But there is truly very little here. If this rehash of “The Hangover” is how Lucas and Moore want to spend the rest of their career may I suggest a 3 second pitch myself? “The Hangover” meets “Mannequin”! I’m not sure what that entails but it could be any worse than this.