New film combines juvenile humor, tired jokes in lackluster plot
They just don’t make great college party movies anymore.
That’s right. The days of “Animal House” and “Old School” are finally behind us. Now, whenever some wannabe director tries to entice all of the party-loving college students into theaters, they try too hard to be just like the classics.
“21 and Over” is that kind of movie. It’s basically a blended cocktail of the great party films we know and love, only nowhere near as lovable or funny. The movie is part “Superbad” mixed with “Animal House” with a little “Sixteen Candles” thrown in; we get the semi-nerdy boy with his crude, horn-dog friend, the gorgeous sorority girl dating the psychopath frat boy and the Asian character who spends most of his screen time in a drunken stupor.
Also, comedy kings Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (the writing duo behind “The Hangover”) direct this film as if trying to say, “Hey, we’re the guys who wrote ‘The Hangover.’” It even begins in the same “how the f--- did we get here” fashion, with its two leads shuffling across a public square wearing nothing but athletic socks over certain appendages.
Miles Teller (“Project X”) is the beer-chugging “YOLO” Miller, and Skylar Astin (“Pitch Perfect”) is the straight-laced Casey. Together, they visit their best friend from high school, Jeff Chang (Justin Chon), on the eve of his 21st birthday party. Jeff can’t go out, though, because his uptight daddy has scheduled a medical school interview for the following morning.
Still, Casey and Miller cajole Jeff Chang (they call him this throughout the entire film, reinforcing his ethnicity) into celebrating with “just one beer,” which, as predictably as the rest of the movie, leads to all manners of mayhem. Jeff ends up passing out, and his two supposedly best friends have no idea how to get back to his house.
Though it’s all material we’ve seen before, Lucas and Moore know what they want this movie to be and never pull any punches, urging us to laugh about psychotic male cheerleaders, getting spanked by sorority girls and a seemingly likable character who thinks racial humor is the best kind.
In fact, “21 and Over” is about as racist, sexist and overwhelmingly tasteless as it comes — and not in a good way (if there is any). This not only includes sexism toward all of the sorority girls or all of the racist comments about Asian-Americans, but there’s also a crack toward a suicide attempt that’s completely out of place in a movie that just aims to be silly entertainment.
Suggestions of a deeper plot do come up, mostly centered on how Miller’s childish ways burned most of his friendship bridges. But they often get sidetracked over games of beer pong and crude Latino jokes. However, the movie offers a few touching moments that test Miller and Casey’s friendship.
If these characters were even mildly likable, maybe we could actually care about this sorry cadre. It’s difficult, especially since motor-mouth partier Miller finds too much enjoyment with racial humor, assuming Jeff Chang is a science genius just because he’s Asian-American. Latinos, Jews and other ethnic groups be warned as well.
But Jeff Chang himself is probably the most irritating character. Most of the movie features him as some “Weekend at Bernie’s” drag-along, and he transcends into this obnoxious prone whenever he’s awake, urinating on bar patrons and sprinting across parked cars.
But I suppose Lucas and Moore deserve some points for originality and creativity. It’s not every day we see a film with slow-motion footage of a college student projectile vomiting as he rides a mechanical bull.
It’s a comedy cruise line where every stop is as predictable as the last. There’s plenty of juvenile energy to go around, but like a hard-partying night at the best club in town, you probably won’t remember it the next day. So you should know how Jeff Chang feels in the end.