Another day; another American Pie influenced teen comedy pillages its way into cinemas. 21 And Over tells the story of Jeff Chang, a student, who goes on the bender to end all benders. And of course the following day he has a huge interview for med school, meaning his bender wasn't the best idea. But thankfully his friends are on hand to drag him to through the experience.
From the opening credits, 21 & Over starts to grate on your nerves. From the constant crane and dolly shots, to the soundtrack it gets irritating rather quickly. And the last thing anybody wants with a comedy is to get irritated. As our hapless / legless heroes go from bar to bar, Jeff Chang (who is constantly called Jeff Chang and never Jeff) gets more and more obliterated and ends up in a number of scenarios. None of which are particularly funny. All the time, his two friends Casey (Skylar Astin) and Miller (Miles Teller) are as sober as a bus load of judges. And while 21 And Over may have the best use of slow motion puking in cinematic history, it doesn’t make sense. 3 guys out on the town and only one is completely fucked up. SERIOUSLY!
The occasional glimpse of a nipple and a rampaging Buffalo do little to elevate this above junk, but and this is a big but, a small saving grace is the tone underneath the puking, drinking and Buffalo rampages. That saving grace sees Jeff Change (Justin Chon) have far more problems than his friends are seemingly aware of. While I won’t drop spoilers here, it’s a far more interesting story than the actual story than the “Lets get our drunk friend home”. And this story, which includes depression, guns and a whole lot more is interwoven quite well and grows organically enough from beginning to end. This could have been a really great dark comedy, but instead it just drags it Buffalo arse on the carpet.
The influence of what's gone before it, particularly American Pie is very apparent and this adds to the annoyingness of the whole thing. Miles Teller’s character Miller, does his very best to imitate Stifler but there is only one Stiffmeister and Teller fails abysmally every time he attempts anything even remotely funny. The only real saving grace from the on screen cast is Skylar Astin who is convincing and rather likeable.
Overall 21 & Over is annoying and not funny, and its rather decent sub plot surrounding Jeff Chang isn’t enough to endure the whole 93 minutes. Best leave this one out in a field somewhere…with that damn Buffalo!
From the opening credits, 21 & Over starts to grate on your nerves. From the constant crane and dolly shots, to the soundtrack it gets irritating rather quickly. And the last thing anybody wants with a comedy is to get irritated. As our hapless / legless heroes go from bar to bar, Jeff Chang (who is constantly called Jeff Chang and never Jeff) gets more and more obliterated and ends up in a number of scenarios. None of which are particularly funny. All the time, his two friends Casey (Skylar Astin) and Miller (Miles Teller) are as sober as a bus load of judges. And while 21 And Over may have the best use of slow motion puking in cinematic history, it doesn’t make sense. 3 guys out on the town and only one is completely fucked up. SERIOUSLY!
The occasional glimpse of a nipple and a rampaging Buffalo do little to elevate this above junk, but and this is a big but, a small saving grace is the tone underneath the puking, drinking and Buffalo rampages. That saving grace sees Jeff Change (Justin Chon) have far more problems than his friends are seemingly aware of. While I won’t drop spoilers here, it’s a far more interesting story than the actual story than the “Lets get our drunk friend home”. And this story, which includes depression, guns and a whole lot more is interwoven quite well and grows organically enough from beginning to end. This could have been a really great dark comedy, but instead it just drags it Buffalo arse on the carpet.
The influence of what's gone before it, particularly American Pie is very apparent and this adds to the annoyingness of the whole thing. Miles Teller’s character Miller, does his very best to imitate Stifler but there is only one Stiffmeister and Teller fails abysmally every time he attempts anything even remotely funny. The only real saving grace from the on screen cast is Skylar Astin who is convincing and rather likeable.
Overall 21 & Over is annoying and not funny, and its rather decent sub plot surrounding Jeff Chang isn’t enough to endure the whole 93 minutes. Best leave this one out in a field somewhere…with that damn Buffalo!
