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17 Again. |
17 Again, Exeter Vue
Certi 12A, 102 minutes
By Graham Taylor
Zac Efron steps away from the High School Musical franchise to star in a new teen comedy, 17 Again, and this time it is actually quite funny.
The film begins with 17 year-old Mike O’Donnell (Efron) about to play the most important basketball game of his life, a match that will cement his place at college.
But his priorities are change when he discovers his girlfriend, Scarlett, is having a baby, and needs his support. So instead of going to college, he decides to support Scarlett and gets a job.
Twenty years later, Mike (now Matthew Perry) is unhappily living with high school buddy and nerd extraordinaire, Ned (Thomas Lennon) having been kicked out of his house by stressed wife, Scarlett (now Leslie Mann.)
He has no relationship with his two kids, Alex and Maggie (Sterling Knight and Michelle Trachtenberg), has a job in pharmaceutical advertising that he’s worked at for 16 years without a promotion - he wishes he had his old life back.
Having returned to his old high school, he meets the new janitor, who admits how much he wants to be 17 again. Later in the day, Mike witnesses the janitor about to jump off a bridge, but as he tries to stop him, he falls into the water himself.
Next morning, Mike realises he is 17 again! (It’s a massive shock for the audience too.) However, instead of trying to get his old body back, Mike decides that, with the help of Ned, he should enrol himself at his old high school, and change how his life has turned out.
But when he returns, he realises that it’s not himself he should be helping but his kids, what with Alex being bullied and Maggie dating the cruel jock beating up her brother. Soon, Mike realises that he had the perfect life; but how can he get it back?
There has been a lot of negativity around this film due to Efron’s performance but in my opinion, Efron is one of the best things about the film. He shows great comic timing that he seemed incapable of in the High School Musical films. He’s funny, and although some of the dialogue he is given is very corny, Efron makes it work due to the connection he has with the audience. He draws you into the film’s storyline, and emphasis the rights and the wrongs of life.
The rest of the cast are also very good. Thomas Lennon as Ned once again proves his comic chops, just as he did in I Love you, Man. His sub-storyline where he tries to woo Principal Jane Masterson (Melora Hardin) is very comical, and isn’t just a part to fill the time.
Apart from the acting and witty script, there isn’t really anything appealing to draw you into 17 Again.
The music is non-existent, except for a very good scene which involves Mike and Ned in a Star Wars- esque battle.
The setting is pretty much all in a high school, so nothing special there.
But this film doesn’t need anything else except from the storyline and the actors. It certainly hasn’t stopped the public anyway.
Many cinemas across Britain have had to expand this film into more screens, due to over booking on the internet, and the crazy amount of people who want to see it.
At both my local cinemas, the queues were huge, going the whole way up the road. In fact, people were being turned away as tickets ran out! That really sums up how popular this film has become.
All in all, this is a fun, teen comedy with enough belly laughs to keep adults entertained too.
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