21 & OVER Review

It was inevitable that this years comedy premiering in March and also beginning with the number 21 would get nowhere close to the glory of last years. That comedy and its dynamic duo of Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill are a tough match yet despite their much larger popularity the boys of 21 & Over, Miles Teller and Skylar Astin, were able to put up a good enough effort to win them a good bit of credibility and respect. 21 Jump Street this is not, but coming out almost a year to the day as Project X (that one produced by Hangover director Todd Phillips) this all night long party of a movie is more in the vein of films such as that juvenile outing. This one, surprisingly enough, has a more sophisticated (for lack of a better word) approach and no handheld camera schtick or as large an element of disbelief distracting us either. As written and directed by the same guys who penned the original Hangover script, Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, I'd have to say I was surprised by how much I took away from this film. It goes by at a breakneck speed and hits all the right, formulaic marks before finding a conscience at the end that teaches a fine enough lesson without feeling too hypocritical. The film is nothing anyone will find to be particularly groundbreaking and certainly won't stick around in anyone's mind for much longer than its theatrical run, but it is well enough fun and much better than it had any right to be. For that, it deserves a bit of positive word of mouth. It is one of those films easy to dismiss, hip to pass off, but if someone were to put it on in the background at a party I guarantee a good portion of the people would find their attention drawn to the antics onscreen.