21 & Over (2013) starring Miles Teller, Skylar Astin, Justin Chon, Sarah Wright, Jonathan Keltz directed by Jon Lucas, Scott Moore Movie Review

21 & Over (2013)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Miles Teller and Justin Chon in 21 & Over (2013)

Teller Does a Vaughn In Junior Hangover

College student Jeff Chang (Justin Chon) has just turned 21 and he has a major interview lined up thanks to his strict father, Dr. Chang (Francois Chau). The thing is that his childhood friends, Casey (Skylar Astin) and Miller (Miles Teller), have showed up to celebrate his birthday and Miller is not going to allow something as important as a job interview to spoil a night of partying in all the places that they hadn't been able to get in to before. The thing is that one beer turns in to a whole night of drinking and come the morning it is time to take Jeff home to get him ready for the interview, except they haven't go a clue of where he lives.

Is Miles Teller the son of Vince Vaughn, he sounds like him especially when he delivers one of those tirade style pieces where he proclaims it is an American's right to get drunk and do drugs. Or maybe it is because Teller's part in "21 & Over" is like a part Vince Vaughn would play if this was written for either grown ups or grown ups at college acting like college students. In fact it is not just Teller's part as every single character in "21 & Over" feels like it has been based on another character from another movie.

The thing is that "21 & Over" is derivative as it is another one of those movies where people have a night of debauchery and then suffer for it as they not only end up hung-over but dealing with other consequences of the night before. I suppose then that makes "21 & Over" a movie for a young generation who haven't already watched the many other movies which trade on similar story lines but for those who have will find it only derivative and not that good.

Of course some will disagree but what seems to be the case with "21 & Over" is that it just wants to shock as much as possible. That starts with racial stereotypes it moves on to Jeff standing on a bar and urinating over people to slow motion projectile vomiting. Now if I was 18 I might find this amusing but I am not 18 and none of it is clever as all it goes for basic comedy from nudity to those gross out moments each time trying to be more ridiculous than the last.

What this all boils down to is that "21 & Over" was not for me and in order to try and make the derivative storyline work the writers tried to go as extreme as they can with the shocks and gross out comedy.


LATEST REVIEWS