Overall Rating:   3.5 out of 5, including 2 reviews
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Not Again!
2.25 out of 5.00 - Film: 2 Features: 1 Video: 3 Audio: 3 - 8/25/2009 |
One has to wonder while watching 17 Again, what year we're actually living in. Is this 1988, year of the great body switching triple threat of Like Father, Like Son, Vice Versa, and 18 Again? Or, is this just another example of Hollywood up to its' old trick of recycling material with the hopes of striking gold yet again? It's incredibly strange though that this concept would even get another reboot, considering all those previous attempts resulted in a fast death at the box office. Fourth time is a charm though, as 17 Again proved to be a financial success. Can this be attributed to Efron's huge teen following? Or, are audiences finally ignorant enough to lap up such a warmed over fare?
It's 1989 and Mike O'Donnell (Zac Efron) is a captain of the basketball team and on the verge of scoring a scholarship. During the championship game (after a terribly out of place dance number), he is informed by his girlfriend Scarlet (Allison Miller) that she is pregnant. After the shock wears off and the game resumes, he makes the decision to throw it all away and propose to her.
Cut to twenty years later. Mike's (Matthew Perry) life is in complete chaos. Scarlet (Leslie Mann) has filed for divorce and he is forced to crash with his best friend, the very rich and very geeky Ned (Thomas Lennon).He's just been fired for pitching a fit after being passed over for promotion, and his kids Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg) and Alex (Sterling Knight) aren't currently speaking to him. While visiting his old high school to reminisce about the life that could have been, he encounters a grizzled and (apparently) supernatural janitor (Brian Doyle-Murray). On the way home, he sees the janitor standing on the edge of a bridge, Mike runs towards him, but when he reaches the edge, the janitor is gone, and there is a black hole/ time warp below the bridge. Mike falls into the hole and blacks out. He soon awakens back on the bridge. When he gets home, he discovers that he has been magically transformed into his 17-year old self.
Ned agrees to pose as his father and Mike enrolls at Hayden High as Mark Gold. He's convinced he has been given the chance to live his life over again and correct his past mistakes. He soon discovers his daughter is dating the basketball captain Stan (Hunter Parrish), who is bullying his son. This is a clear indicator that Mike's mission is to befriend his children and correct their current problems. In the process he also gets some face time with his soon to be ex-wife, who is soon strangely attracted to the "weirdo little man child" Mark. Meanwhile, Ned has fallen for the Principal of Hayden High (Melora Waters). The scenes between Lennon and Waters are one of the true highlights of the film. The chemistry they share is eerily similar to the one she shares with Steve Carrel on The Office.
How will this all end up? What do you think? There's really not an ounce of originality or reinvention injected to the formula. The cast all around does a commendable job with the material they've been given. Efron may be leading man one day but he's going to have to veer away from the teen material and apply himself to something more adult (this may very well happen though as his next film is Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles).The final scene between Perry and Mann actually makes you wish that they we're paired up together in an altogether different film devoted solely to them. I was also shocked to see director Burr Steers' name in the credits as his last film, the great Igby Goes Down, was the polar opposite of 17 Again. This isn't a completely terrible film, but if you're not a teenage girl and you want something with a touch of invention, I would avoid it all costs.
The DVD is presented in Widescreen (2.35:1) with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. There are no bonus features at all included.
- DVD Empire
by B.C. Wills |
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