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17 Again
Zac Efron and his baby blues are put to the ultimate test in a silly 2009 comedy called 17 Again that features a confusing story where the time travel comedies, the body switch comedies, and the teen comedies of the 1980's all collide causing a traffic accident of a comedy that is hard to take seriously.
Mike O'Donnell (the late Matthew Perry) is a 37 year old executive who is divorced with two kids. We also learn that 17 year old Mike (Efron) was the star of his high school basketball team, but his basketball dreams were derailed when he learned that he got his girlfriend, Scarlet pregnant and agreed to marry her. Adult Mike has just lost a big promotion at work and decides to cheer himself up by visiting his old high school. While perusing the basketball trophy case, Mike runs into a mysterious janitor (Brian Doyle Murray) who instantly sees what Mike is going through and asks him if he would like a chance to do things over again, knowing what he knows now. Later Mike observes the janitor preparing to jump off a bridge and falls in after him, throwing Mike into some sort of time warp where Mike becomes 17 again, but he remains in the present and ends up going to high school with his teenage son and daughter.
There's a good movie in here somewhere, but you really have to dig for it, because the premise requires a lot of prep for the viewer that, frankly, gets exhausting. At first, it seems like we're going to get a story about adult Mike deciding that his family is the most important thing in the world to him and that he will do anything to get them back. Then the story flips and now Mike seems to be blaming the fact that Scarlet trapped him into marriage via pregnancy and that this ruined his life and now is curious about the road not taken. This revelation takes away a lot of the character's appeal and before the story has actually gained any traction, we already aren't liking this Mike guy too much.
The fact that Mike becomes 17 again but stays in the present instead of going back to the time when he was actually 17 again, overcomplicates the plot, because the reason he wanted to go back to being 17, is literally shoved to the backburner because he spends most of his time looking out for his kids. His son is being bullied and his daughter is dating the creepiest guy in school. And, of course, once he gets his daughter away from the creep, she decides she wants Mike, which leads to more predictable complications. The subplot of adult Mike's best friend (Thomas Lennon) trying to romance the school principal (Melora Hardin) does nothing but pad the running time.
Zac attempts sincerity here, but even he seems a little embarrassed of the things this story puts him through. Leslie Mann is fine as adult Scarlet though and I did like Michelle Trachtenberg as Mike's daughter, but this movie was exhausting.
Zac Efron and his baby blues are put to the ultimate test in a silly 2009 comedy called 17 Again that features a confusing story where the time travel comedies, the body switch comedies, and the teen comedies of the 1980's all collide causing a traffic accident of a comedy that is hard to take seriously.
Mike O'Donnell (the late Matthew Perry) is a 37 year old executive who is divorced with two kids. We also learn that 17 year old Mike (Efron) was the star of his high school basketball team, but his basketball dreams were derailed when he learned that he got his girlfriend, Scarlet pregnant and agreed to marry her. Adult Mike has just lost a big promotion at work and decides to cheer himself up by visiting his old high school. While perusing the basketball trophy case, Mike runs into a mysterious janitor (Brian Doyle Murray) who instantly sees what Mike is going through and asks him if he would like a chance to do things over again, knowing what he knows now. Later Mike observes the janitor preparing to jump off a bridge and falls in after him, throwing Mike into some sort of time warp where Mike becomes 17 again, but he remains in the present and ends up going to high school with his teenage son and daughter.
There's a good movie in here somewhere, but you really have to dig for it, because the premise requires a lot of prep for the viewer that, frankly, gets exhausting. At first, it seems like we're going to get a story about adult Mike deciding that his family is the most important thing in the world to him and that he will do anything to get them back. Then the story flips and now Mike seems to be blaming the fact that Scarlet trapped him into marriage via pregnancy and that this ruined his life and now is curious about the road not taken. This revelation takes away a lot of the character's appeal and before the story has actually gained any traction, we already aren't liking this Mike guy too much.
The fact that Mike becomes 17 again but stays in the present instead of going back to the time when he was actually 17 again, overcomplicates the plot, because the reason he wanted to go back to being 17, is literally shoved to the backburner because he spends most of his time looking out for his kids. His son is being bullied and his daughter is dating the creepiest guy in school. And, of course, once he gets his daughter away from the creep, she decides she wants Mike, which leads to more predictable complications. The subplot of adult Mike's best friend (Thomas Lennon) trying to romance the school principal (Melora Hardin) does nothing but pad the running time.
Zac attempts sincerity here, but even he seems a little embarrassed of the things this story puts him through. Leslie Mann is fine as adult Scarlet though and I did like Michelle Trachtenberg as Mike's daughter, but this movie was exhausting.