17 Again Review

17 Again

Starring Matthew Perry, Zac Efron, Leslie Mann

New Line Cinema

Zac Efron returns to high school to shoot some hoops, hook up with some ladies (or just one), and maybe even dance. Yep, it's High School Musical once again, ladies and gentlemen.

Wait. This isn't it.

What I meant to say was that in Zac Efron's efforts to break out of his High School Musical persona, he picked a starring vehicle that lets him distance himself so people can take him seriously. Apparently, his recent movie 17 Again fits that criteria, and in this movie, he plays a basketball playing high-school heartthrob that can... dance...

Hmm...

Am I reading the wrong synopses?

Well, I guess not since this is exactly what his character Mike O' Donnell is capable of. During high school, he was a jock who knocked up a girl named Scarlett. He had to choose between a scholarship, and the baby. He chose the latter. 20 years later, Matthew Perry takes over the role for a while and the couple decides to have a divorce. A janitor from his old school, however, transforms him back into Zac Efron. Now, I leave you to fill in the gaps.

You've seen this movie before. The inverse of this is quite practically 13 Going On 30 and hey, it draws some inspiration (from what I see) from Freaky Friday as well. Now that you have an impression of what to expect, it's hard to make a review that doesn't state the obvious. Fortunately, the movie at least tries a bit to shake things up-- not that there isn't anything particularly unique regardless-- and the "twists" somewhat end up annoying. The Ned character is probably drawn from Superbad's McLovin' character-- basically, the nerd who gets lucky-- and while he does have some funny parts, his sub-plot doesn't do much to make the movie any more different. And how about that air of self-consciousness? It's actually not as funny as you'd expect, because it becomes annoying in the sense that you just know that they'd fall for the cliches anyway.

The biggest problem of all is that they try to attempt the way Judd Apatow does awkward scenes-- and for that matter, silences. When used correctly, they can become rather funny, but here, it's just plain awkward. Hell, there are probably other awkward scenes that weren't meant to be awkward at all! Just take my word when I say that seriously, there's a lot of incest here.

Despite my bitching, I can still say that 17 Again is still a pretty entertaining film, if not a bit cliche-ridden and fluffy as hell. The actors do a pretty good job, and the ladies are probably gonna watch this whether the guys like it or not because of Zac Efron's money-making machine (READ: repeated scenes of the his washboard abs). It's an ok film.

Rating: 6.5/10