REVIEW: '21 and Over'
BY NOUR HABIB World Scene Writer
Friday, March 01, 2013
I can appreciate crude, raunchy comedy. There were times I couldn’t breathe from laughter while I watched movies like “The Hangover” and “Horrible Bosses.”
But if I’ve paid to see that kind of a comedy — the kind rated R for “crude and sexual content, pervasive language, some graphic nudity, drugs and drinking” — then the makers of said film had better make sure I’m laughing hard.
Not the case with “21 and Over.”
Crude and raunchy it was. Funny it was not.
Miller (Miles Teller) and Casey (Skylar Astin) have decided to surprise their friend Jeff Chang (Justin Chon) for his 21st birthday. The high school buddies meet up at Chang’s college campus and insist on taking him out drinking the night before his big medical school interview.
And of course there is a thin thread of a story, because you can’t really have a movie without one. The night of partying serves as a way to rekindle the bond of friendship between these three high school friends, who’ve hit hurdles in their lives but haven’t shared them with each other because they are drifting apart.
The friends make quite the trio. There’s the nerdy, awkward one. There is the loud, obnoxious one. And there’s the drunk one.
In theory, they’ve got the perfect mix for some great comedic moments. But Casey is just not awkward enough, Miller is not obnoxious enough and Jeff Chang … well, actually, he’s definitely drunk enough, as he spends most of the movie knocked out.
It appears that writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (“The Hangover,” “The Change-Up”) may have been too busy with their directorial debut to arm their characters with decent jokes.
The best lines we’re ever treated to are along the lines of “Jeff Chang is Asian. There is no ‘remedial in that language.”
Basically, this movie is filled with the kind of jokes you’d expect to see on an Internet meme — something that may elicit at most a chuckle.
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‘21 and over’
Cast: Miles Teller, Skylar Astin, Justin Chon
Theaters: Cinemark Tulsa, AMC Southroads 20, Cinemark Broken Arrow, RiverWalk, Owasso, Eton Square, Starworld 20, Sand Springs
Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes
Rated: R (for crude and sexual content, pervasive language, some graphic nudity, drugs and drinking)
Associated Images:
This film image released by Relativity Media shows Miles Teller, center left, and Skylar Astin in a scene from "21 & Over". JOHN JOHNSON/AP Photo/Relativity Media
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