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Health & Fitness

"21 And Over" Or, The Young And the Sleepless

Hey, if the same guys made the movie they're ripping off, it's can't be a rip-off right?

 

I am so familiar with so many of the tropes of “21 And Over:” the young people who are at a crossroads in their lives with the event of the night providing a catalyst for positive change, the party where a guy gets smashed which leads to night long quest, all the while being pursued by a deranged cast of characters. So why did I have so much fun?

 

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Well, first of all, there are the guys we're traveling with: longtime friends Miller (Miles Teller) and Casey (Skylar Astin) head to meet the other member of their posse: Jeff Chang, who is studying to be a doctor and has a huge interview the next morning that could make his career. But it's his 21st birthday, so he and his friends decide to hit the town and, ahem, just have a few drinks. Let the mayhem begin!

 

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And does it ever. This is from the writers of “The Hangover,” and they've proved that they know how to make a raunchy comedy that still has a heart. The guys at the center are younger, the event is a birthday rather than a wedding, but the lighthearted sense of fun remains the same. And since the machinery behind “21 And Over” knows how to do it right, it feels familiar rather than old.

 

The banter also has a great deal to do with it. The repartee in “The Hangover” succeeded mostly due to Zach Galifianakis's fantastic delivery. But it succeeds here because of the wit and rapid-fire dialogue that even keeps the stereotypes that are these characters entertaining. Casey is the responsible nerd who is heading for Wall Street and already has his future all planned out, who happens to get a hot love interest that may just be able to encourage him to lighten up, and Miller is the party animal who constantly encourages his friends to...well, party. And of course, there's Jeff Chang, the guy at the center of it all, who is the...Asian kid studying to become a doctor with a rigid, controlling and inflexible father.

 

The few drinks, of course, turns into a wild night that spins out of control, and the guys not only have to get out of it in one piece, they have to contemplate the gulf that has grown between all three of them, where they want their lives to go and a few uncomfortable facts that they learn about Jeff Chang throughout the night.

 

Of course, this movie firmly caters to the younger demographic and makes few concessions to anyone else. And if others had made “21 And Over,” I would probably call it a rip-off. But since the same guys made the movie it's so similar too, it could be more accurately called a repackaging and/or revisiting rather than theft. And if you're the audience it's made for, you'll be too busy laughing to care.

 

Grade: B+

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