'21 and Over': Ho Ho or No No?

by Brett Parker

Its peculiar how a comedy can have all the right moves yet be devoid of the consistent laughter you'd expect from such an enterprise.  Such is the case with 21 and Over, an irreverent, college-age bromantic romp that serves up a talented cast, plenty of zingers, and endless slapstick gags, yet never really delivers the side-splitting belly laughs you yearn for.  If its any indication, the audience I watched the film with didn't turn out to be the laugh-on-cue sitcom audience you usually get with a flick like this.  Still, the film has its likable side.  Like a chubby, weird kid doing a stand-up routine during an elementary school talent show, you smile at the effort while secretly wishing that Richard Pryor-level laughs were being dished out in waves.

The film follows the drunken mishaps and chaotic mayhem that erupts on the 21st birthday of Jeff Chang (Justin Chon), an overly-studious college student.  When his big legal-drinking holiday finally arrives, that attracts a visit from his old high school buddies Miller (Miles Teller) and Casey (Skylar Astin).  The fellas can’t wait to take Chang out and get him drunk beyond belief, but they soon receive a dire warning from Chang’s stern and intimidating father, Dr. Chang (Francois Chau): Jeff has an early morning med school interview the day after his birthday and if he misses out on it as the result of a bad hangover, there’s gonna be hell to pay.  Although terrified at the prospect of Dr. Chang’s wrath, the gang decides to move forward with their pub-crawl plan all while being mindful of Chang’s early morning appointment.

As nighttime falls, the fellas hit the town and hit up every bar in sight, pounding endless beers and an obscene amount of shots.  Chang seems to be enjoying his own drunken exuberance right up until the moment he pukes his brains out and passes out.  As Chang lays unconscious, his friends discover a problem: they have no idea where he lives or how to get him home since they’re not familiar with his college town.  This sets off an epic quest to get Chang back to his house safe and sound so he can be fresh and ready for his interview, a perilous adventure that throws everything at our heroes from a wild buffalo, a sociopathic jock (Jonathan Keitz), a hostile sorority, a video-game style frat party, and disturbing revelations about Jeff Chang’s college life.  

21 and Over is brought to us by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the same frisky shenanigan-mongers who wrote The Hangover, and your heart sinks a little knowing that the duo is more or less just ripping off their own formula.  This plot also turns out to be a booze-soaked journey towards saving a fellow bro filled with outrageous detours and a near-identical climactic twist.  Yet the duo's work on this flick and The Change-Up proves that maybe The Hangover’s success was due more to the beautifully incongruent chemistry between its stars and Todd Phillip's knack for finding soulfulness in zaniness than the simple-minded script.   Perhaps this movie would've worked a lot better if it focused less on raunch fest hand-me-downs and more on actual situations faced with going-out as a 21-year-old, such as pub formalities, awkward pick-ups, dance-floor silliness, drunken fist fights, tacky sartorial choices, and bizarre conversations.  A little less of The Hangover and more Swingers, if you know what I mean.

Whatever saving grace this movie has comes from the more-than-capable cast.  Like the young crew of the Starship Enterprise on their first mission, you sense that these cool cats are destined for greater things.  Miles Teller proves here as he did in the Footloose remake that he's a charming comic actor, especially as this film pushes him towards becoming the next Vince Vaughn.  Skylar Astin is like watching a young Dane Cook trying to be a young Tom Hanks, which he makes miles more appealing than that sounds like.  And even if Jeff Chang skids dangerously close to being an Asian stereotype, Justin Chon sure plays him otherwise, which is a wildly optimistic observation considering the drunken Wookie his character is made out to be. 

On a spectrum where comedies are either wildly funny or mind-numbingly awful, there are those that fall in the middle of being occasionally funny with a few laughs here and there, which can sometimes be more frustrating than downright terrible comedies.  21 and Over falls into that middle category, with yearning eyes staring towards the top.  I'm really back and forth on whether or not the movie works for me, and I suspect that watching it at home after a few beers may enhance its appeal.  I'm reminded of how I saw Anchorman in theaters and disliked it, until I watched it again on DVD in college and laughed hysterically at it.  In the end, I’ve decided to give the flick a mild recommendation because the cast is likable, the soundtrack is rather fun, a party scene with video-game style levels is a cool idea, and the film's final moment had me smiling and laughing enough to think, "oh, what the hell....I'll tell people to go and see this."