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17 Again /Seventeen Again/ movie comments

Date: 2009-07-09 21:20:50 User: Becky Risher At 17 Mike O'Donell was on top of the world; he was the star of his high school basketball team, and was a shoo in for a college scholarship. And is dating his soul mate, Scarlett. But on what's suppose to be his big game wherein college scouts are checking him out, Scarlett reveals that she's pregnant. Mike decides to leave the game and asks Scarlett to marry him which she does. During their marriage, Mike could only whine about the life he lost because he married her. So she throws him out. And when he loses his job, he returns to the only place he's happy at - his old high school. And while looking at his high school photo, a janitor asks him if he wishes he could be 17 again and he says yes. One night while driving he sees the janitor on a bridge and apparently jumps in and he goes after him. When he returns to his friend, Ned's house, where he has been staying, he sees that he is 17 again. He decides to take this opportunity to get the life he lost. Date: 2009-12-17 22:11:09 User: Buy Truy Zac Ephron isn't the only one that's experiencing a tough back-to-school transformation in the shoddy and shallow fantasy teen comedy 17 AGAIN It must have taken the powers-that-be a brief 20-minute lunch session over a stale roast beef sandwich to conceive this woefully derivative teen comedy 17 Again. For the sake of argument one cannot blame the handlers of this flaccid fable to see dollar signs dancing in their collective heads. First, why not milk the “body swap” gimmick for the ten millionth time? Hey, it worked for squeaky-clean comedies such as Freak Friday, right? Secondly, why not cash in on the teenybopper craze that is the Disney-esque dreamboat of the moment in High School Musical heartthrob Zac Ephron? After all, the Disney Channel machine has propelled such profitable marketing products as current Disney-bred adolescent alums Miley (“Hannah Montana”) Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers so why not tap into the fervent following of chick magnet Ephron? Regardless of the lazy-minded concoction behind the conceptual fluff that is 17 Again Ephron fans will eat this transparent tale up like a desperate starving man searching for leftovers in a Chinese food restaurant trash bin. As one can imagine, 17 Again is needlessly aching in its familiarity from the adult-to-teen premise and the paper-thin laughs only convey what a meager and meandering teen comedy this dim-witted ditty really is at heart. While uniquely disposable 17 Again does contain some legit chuckles—mainly from supporting player Thomas Lennon that effortlessly steals the show as the wise-cracking best bud of Ephron’s protagonist. Quite frankly that’s not saying much in a tedious teen vehicle where there’s not that much to steal—one might refer to this as petty larceny in legal terms. Amazingly, writer-director Burr Steers oversees this relentlessly stilted juvenile laugher with pedestrian direction and no sense of imaginative flair or distinctive comic timing. Steers was responsible for the brilliant yet under-appreciated 2000 coming-of-age story Igby Goes Down so it is kind of bewildering why he would put his stamp of approval on this painful formulaic flick that bows down to the popularity of pre-teen prince Ephron? In all fairness, pop culture pretty boy Ephron is likable and tries to handle this middling material with the best of his self-deprecating strides but the movie’s involvement in predictable slapstick and recycled jokes undercuts his jocular efforts. High school basketball sensation Mike O’Donnell had it made at age seventeen during his secondary schooling years. However, he did the unspeakable—he impregnated his girlfriend thus throwing away a promising future for the life as a very young family man. Now twenty years later, 37-year old Mike (Matthew Perry) is bogged down with an uneventful existence that includes his stagnant marriage to Scarlet (Leslie Mann) and the constant insolence coming from his teenaged kids. On top of that scenario, Mike is suffering professionally at work as he considers his career notoriously stillborn. If only Mike O’Donnell can do it all over again and go back to the glory days of high school and have that one shot at doing things the way it was meant to be? How rewarding would that be to escape his current malaise? Through some far-fetched magical transformation the disenfranchised middle-aged Mike gets his “do-over” wish and becomes conveniently the “younger” version (Ephron) of the celebrated high schooler he was in the past before becoming an accidental Daddy Dearest. Basically, Ephron’s Mike is as harried as ever as the late thirtysomething trapped in a contemporary teenaged body of a 17-year old in 2009. Unfortunately, high school life from Mike’s heyday in 1989 doesn’t quite gel with today’s trends and anxieties. In a gimmicky twist, Mike becomes the schoolmate of his own kids (Michelle Trachtenberg and Sterling Knight) and watches out for their growing pains interest while fighting his obvious attraction for a grown-up Scarlet in the process. The nonsensical goings-on in 17 Again uneventfully will invite every cliched footnote imaginable. See Mike deal with the teen pressures nowadays while combating his own fish-out-of-water clumsiness. See Mike have an out-of-style bad hair day. See Mike try to capture his basketball prowess on the court during the big game. See Mike consult his geeky billionaire best buddy Ned (Thomas Lennon, “I Love You, Man”) for some off-kilter advice. See young Mike experience some “wannabe cougar action” with estranged wife Scarlet. See Mike get ranked on by acid-tongued cheerleaders. Step by step, 17 Again drags on tiredly like a loose muffler under your Aunt Gertrude’s decrepit minivan. From the aforementioned Freaky Friday movies to other copycats such as Like Father Like Son, Vice Versa and the surprisingly enjoyable 13 Going On 30, the watered-down high jinks in 17 Again is excruciatingly dormant as compared to the blueprints just mentioned. The whimsical Perry-to-Ephron physical exchange feels so inconsequential. Everything explored in 17 Again has been done to death and ten times better to boot. Perry, usually a riotous element in otherwise forgettable farces that he has been involved in over the years, registers with all the impact of a cigarette butt in a lonely ashtray. Ephron will probably be excused for his strained participation in this bubble-headed dud. Remarkably, his avid ‘tween hangers-on would blindly pay to watch him read a fortune cookie. As the estranged Scarlet, Mann isn’t given much to do at all. Whatever it takes to turn back the hands of time, the misfire 17 Again will never be soundly appetizing unless one morphs into a 13 year-old freckled face gal with a serious Troy Bolton fixation. Date: 2009-12-26 17:22:06 User: PostFilm 17 Again is a movie that very pleasantly snuck up on me. The film, on DVD August 11, stars Zac Efron, who is a talented young actor but carries the kind of teenybopper baggage that's inclined to make adults run for the hills. Toss in the fact that this is another body-swap movie in the same vain as Freaky Friday, Big, Vice Versa and the similarly-titled George Burns clunker 18 Again, and there's little reason to believe the film will appeal to anyone who is not a pre-adolescent girl. But guess what - 17 Again is actually really fun. If you took a pass when it was in theaters (as I guiltily confess I did), DVD is a great chance to rectify the situation. Matthew Perry plays Mike O'Donnell a 40-ish guy who is separated from his wife Scarlett (Leslie Mann) and nearly estranged from his teenage children. Once upon a time, Mike was a high school basketball star who would have had an all-expenses paid college scholarship had he not thrown it all away after getting Scarlett pregnant. (He feels he threw it away, not me, just for the record.) He's been miserable ever since, feeling like nothing in his life has worked out the way he intended. One day, Mike has a chance encounter with a guy who appears to be a school janitor. He confesses his woes, then sees the janitor attempting to jump from a bridge later that night. Running over to rescue him, Mike falls into some kind of vortex and awakens the next morning to discover that he's reverted to his 17 year-old self, now played by Efron. I know - this sounds stupid. But I promise, this is where 17 Again gets good. Mike is able to convince his rich best friend/professional fanboy Ned (Thomas Lennon) of his circumstance. To help him get a lifetime "do-over," Ned poses as Mike's father and enrolls him in high school under the name "Mark." Suddenly, Mike/Mark is sitting in class alongside daughter Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg), who is bring pressured to lose her virginity by her boyfriend, who also happens to be the class jerk. He also discovers that his son, Alex (Sterling Knight), is having trouble fitting in and is enduring abuse from some of his bullying classmates. This is, of course, a chance for him to help his kids in a way he was never quite able to do as an adult. Then there's Scarlett, who is struck by how much Alex's new friend looks like her husband did as a teen. They begin what appears to everyone else to be a very age-inappropriate flirtation, but which is really Mike's attempt to win back the love of his life. There are a few things here that you have to look past, starting with the fact that Matthew Perry and Zac Efron look nothing like each other. I'm roughly the same age as Mike O'Donnell. Look at my senior class picture and, dorky glasses and haircut aside, it's still clearly me. Apparently, Mike undergoes a complete facial reconstruction over the years following graduation. The whole body-swapping thing also requires the requisite suspension of disbelief, especially since the magical janitor is never explained. If you can get beyond those things, there is much to enjoy in 17 Again. While it's not in the same classic league, the movie has a nice Back to the Future vibe to it. What I mean is that it's more than just a movie about a grown-up acting like a kid. Because of his predicament, Mike encounters his family members in a new way, much like Marty McFly did, and is able to affect their lives from a new vantage point. Consider Maggie, who initially doesn't understand why this new kid in school is so adamant about her not giving it up to her boyfriend; eventually, she realizes that his advice is actually pretty practical. There's additionally something amusing about watching a teenage guy romance his adult wife. Only by reconnecting with his past is Mike able to remember what it was he appreciated so much about Scarlett to begin with. Of course, to everyone else, it looks like she's suddenly becoming a cougar. 17 Again mines a lot of laughs from the situations, yet also plays them with emotional honesty. The body swap isn't a gimmick, but rather an entertaining means for the character to reassess his own life. Zac Efron really sells it. He sure looks like a teen, yet manages to capture just the right notes of parental concern and authority. I love the moment where he forgets that he's a teenager once more and starts lecturing Maggie like a dad. Say what you want about Efron's teen dream status; he's a charismatic actor with solid comedic chops and ability to play the range of this character. Much credit also goes to Thomas Lennon ("Reno 911") who earns continual laughs as the eccentric best friend. Ned is an overgrown man-child with a house full of Star Wars toys and a crush on the school principal (Melora Hardin of "The Office"). Ned serves as a counterpoint to Mike. Whereas Mike is an adult in an adolescent's body, Ned is a suspended adolescent in an adult's body. Sure, it's not hard to see where 17 Again is going, long before it gets there, but so what? It's funnier than you'd expect, more heartwarming than you'd anticipate, and more fun than it really ought to be. This is a very, very, very nice surprise.   You have to register to leave a comment...   Back to the 17 Again movie download page