21 and Over: Rated “R” (93 Minutes)
Starring: Miles Teller, Justin Chon, Skylar Astin, Sarah Wright, Francois Chau
Directed by: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
Brought to us by the fine folks who gave us that epic of debauchery, The Hangover, this wildly entertaining film centers around three buddies; Miller (Teller), Casey (Astin), and Jeff Chang (Chon) who have been friends since high school, and are now reunited for an evening of their own depravity and decadence. Now one of their number (Jeff Chang) has finally turned 21, and his other two pals have decided to show up and take him out binge drinking for the night. Only there is something of a hitch to their plans. Jeff Chang’s dad (Chau) has set him up with a job interview in the morning, and fully expects his son to be there.
As it turns out, Jeff’s dad is not only fourth-generation doctor, but is of the mind that his son will continue this proud tradition. Plus, Dr. Chang is something of a raging A-Hole. So, needless to say, as soon as Dr. Chang leave’s Jeff’s apartment, Miller (who is something of a screw-up slacker) manages to convince Jeff Chang that he really owes it to himself to go out and get tanked up. Well, as it turns out, since Jeff Chang (a straight-“A” student who has been under a tremendous amount of pressure) simply snaps and decides to do everything he wants to do. So, what was supposed to be “just a quick beer” becomes a night of over-indulgence, humiliation, and utter wantonness as the trio of friends pub crawl fully across campus until Jeff Chang is all but completely unconsciousness and his friends are utterly lost.
Now they only have a couple of hours to get Jeff Chang back to his place to bed, and then awake for his all-important interview in the morning. What follows in the rest of this totally outrageous comedy is a rite of passage that has gone so very, very wrong in such an utterly and completely spectacularly hilariously way. The boys manage to run afoul of (among others) an amped-up male cheerleader who wants to kick their collective butts, a group of very angry Hispanic co-eds who want to beat them silly, and campus security who want to arrest them. Yeah, this is the drunken night of insanity that is always fun to watch, (The Hangover, Project X, and Superbad), and this film is the spiritual stepchild of all three.
To be sure, we’ve all witnessed (and been on) more than a few benders, and they are totally more fun to watch (on screen) that they are to participate in. So, be assured, that you will completely enjoy yourself watching this film, so long as it doesn’t elicit flashbacks to you own lost weekends. Oh, and one other thing while this really is a screwball comedy, there are some serious moments which bring real sense of balance to the film
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Robert J. Sodaro has been reviewing films for some 30 years. During that time, his movie reviews and articles have appeared in numerous print publications, as well as on the web. Subscribe to receive regular articles and movie reviews.
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