Don’t be swayed by the inevitable comparisons this movie will get with The Hangover. It’s true, 21 & Over does share the same writing team. And frankly, it has the same basic structure.
It starts with a preview of the aftermath of a night that’s gotten out of hand. Its characters are in a race against time to get to an important event (just replace wedding with med school interview). And it finishes with a twist straight out of the – and I guess I should say spoiler alert here – “Doug’s on the roof” playbook.
Yet 21 & Over just demonstrates why these types of comparisons ultimately lack substance. Why movies aren’t merely about hitting a series of plot points, but about how you fill in the blanks in between. Because while these films may share the same structure, they are far from equals… far from equals.
The plot of 21 & Over is all pretty boilerplate stuff, and if you said to yourself before the movie, “I think I have a pretty good idea what’s going to happen here,” you’d probably be right. A guy named Miller and his friend Casey take their old high school friend, Jeff Chang (who for some reason must always be referred to using both his first and last name), out for his 21st birthday and things get out of hand. They go to a few bars, make a couple of frat boy enemies, visit a sorority.
You know, just about every college movie cliché ever. Which is ironic, because 21 & Over has to be one of the least realistic depictions of college I’ve ever seen. It’s as if the writers’ entire concept of what college came from the back of an Animal House DVD.
But let’s be honest, these types of movies aren’t really about realism. If 21 & Over were funny, all would be forgiven.
The problem is that it’s not, and painfully so. Most of the attempts at comedy are either through a) incredibly contrived situations of the wouldn’t-it-be-crazy-if variety and b) through our main characters trying to be clever. The first rarely works as it’s intended. Contrived shenanigans are just that – contrived. They aren’t crazy; they’re written. And certainly not in a way that feels earned.
The second is perhaps even more problematic. The main comedic force in the movie is supposed to be Miller, one of those abrasive Jonah Hill circa Superbad types. A lot of movies over the past couple of years have tried and had trouble with this type of character and frankly I think they’re the easiest to go wrong.
Abrasiveness for the sake of abrasiveness is not in and of itself very funny, and you’ll find that it takes about 30 seconds upon meeting Miller to realize that you’ll be able to predict pretty much anything he will ever say.
But I think the main problem is – and bear with me here – that Miller is rarely ever reacting to the situation he’s faced with more than he is quipping about it. It’s like that annoying drunk guy who’s constantly regaling everybody with stories about their drunk guy antics. It’s one thing to have a few “crazy” stories, but it’s another to want everybody to know what a wild and crazy guy you are. I always got the impression that Miller – and by extension the people writing him – were of that latter persuasion, desperate to appear edgy but lacking the substance to back it up.
Of course, I’ve now spent two paragraphs talking about what largely should be a peripheral character so suffice to say the two other main characters aren’t much better. Jeff Chang’s main purpose is to be there so other characters can make a bunch of terribly clichéd Asian jokes about him. Likewise, Casey is around primarily to play Miller’s straight man (though he barely gets a word in) and to give the film its obligatory romance.
Evidently, Casey has to hook up with a girl because apparently going away on spring break means you’re never going to see anyone again ever. It’s the type of thing that’s pretty standard in most movies, but 21 & Over tries to pour on the cute banter a little too hard and it borders on grating here.
Add onto that a very sandwiched-in attempt to make these guys grow from their experience and you’ll get a pretty good idea of why you probably shouldn’t go see this movie.
If you’re in the mood for this particular brand of humour you should just watch The Hangover again, and then maybe Superbad… and then Star Wars! Guys, we should all watch Star Wars again!