21 and Over

If we were to take Project X and The Hangover to represent high school and adult partying respectively, then 21 and Over would fit perfectly in between the two as the college representative to the absurdly drunk trilogy. 21 and Over has two old friends (played by Miles Teller and Skylar Astin) surprise the third of their group (Justin Chon) by showing up to his college house for his 21st birthday. The only problem is Chon’s character, the frequently identified Jeff Chang, has an important medical school interview the next morning. In true party movie fashion, Jeff Chang gets incredibly drunk and his friends must carry him around in a weird Weekend at Bernie’s type scenario and try to find his house.

The movie has a number of very funny scenarios that play out in between the cringe worthy situations. With the two likeable leads, who have established their worth in recent comedy successes, the film moves right along pausing occasionally for some comical, if not unnecessary moments. The characters must complete a dorm building’s worth of party games to get information from Jeff Chang’s old RA, steal a cell phone from a an over aggressive male cheerleader and for some reason repeatedly drop their friend out of multiple windows. But all these seemingly cheap moments work well.

21 and Over is able to remove itself from reality enough for the audience to buy the plot and become interested in the characters. But don’t get me wrong, this is not an intellectual journey the audience goes on. It’s a juvenile drinking movie that is intended for a very specific demographic. Anyone who falls outside of that demographic may leave the theater in the opening minutes. I suppose parents can take comfort in the fact that all the characters are 21 and over, right? At least their idiocy is legal… mostly.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.