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17 AgainGenre: Comedy
Released: 2009
Rating:
17 Again is yet another teenage flick that is completely out of my demographic completely unoriginal, but works on so many levels. The movie delivers great laughs, a great message and a fun experience. Now, if you have seen the trailers, you know this film is essentially 13 Going on 30 or Freaky Friday. A person with a different mental age is put in a younger/older body and has to figure out life lessons while struggling to keep their identity. In this film's case, Efron's character gets to relive his senior year in body form but his mind is still of a forty year old man. One thing this film really had going for it was the acting chemistry. Thomas Lennon (who you know as Lt. Dangle from "Reno: 911") worked extremely well with Zac Efron, who is starting to prove himself as an actor. After recently dropping out of the remake of Footloose, where Efron was supposed to play Kevin Bacon's role, Efron has decided he wants to be taken more seriously and get away from the whole singing and dancing vibe. He was recently on "Saturday Night Live" where he did a "High School Musical 4" bit where he basically mocked the entire series. It was actually very clever.
The film revolves around Mike O' Donnell, a middle aged man (played by Matthew Perry) who made a "mistake" during his senior year of High School. On, what he thought was the biggest night of his life, O' Donnell (Zac Efron), a 17 year old High School student and star basketball player and king of the class, had a decision to make. It was a huge basketball game for him and on this night, college scouts were waiting in the bleachers to give him a scholarship. His girlfriend, Scarlett, raced in to tell him that she was pregnant right before the game started. Instead of playing the game, he decided to propose to her and raise the baby with her. Now, as a middle aged man, he has regrets, two high school kids of his own and a terrible marriage. Since this movie is a fantasy, he meets a weird janitor in the hallways of his old school that his kids now attend, who essentially leads him down a voodoo type path that ends up turning O' Donnell back into a seventeen year old guy again. He has the mindset of the middle aged man but he has now been given a second chance. The question is, will he use this to better his own life or use it to fix his marriage and become closer with his own kids? His kids have no idea that the new guy in school, who goes by the name of Mark, is actually their father.
You have seen this film a billion times, i.e. Big, 13 Going on 30 or Freaky Friday. Yes, it is completely unoriginal, clichéd and predictable but there are some great laughs and the formula works.
The key point was the hilarious co-star acting of Thomas Lennon. His chemistry with Zac Efron, who were childhood friends in the film, was perfectly on point. Lennon's character is a nerd who hits the jackpot by creating the software that helps prevent people from downloading music. He is a huge Lord of the Rings nerd, which they use for a lot of the jokes. He was hilarious and made the movie more comical.
This movie has more of an edge to it, then say, a Hannah Montana flick. This at least had a PG-13 rating so it had sexual jokes and innuendos.
Again this isn't original at all but it works. I feel that it is the perfect rental.