I'm not really completely sure why, but I recently decided to watch the movie 17 Again. Actually, I think maybe I have a small idea why -- between Friends and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, I'm a fan of Matthew Perry. I was kind of curious to see this latest movie he did.When you think about that for even half a second, it really makes no sense at all. First of all, Matthew Perry is hardly in it. He plays an unhappy man going through a divorce who wishes he could go back to his high school days. A bit of magic and POOF! He's Zac Efron! So the idea of watching this movie for the perhaps 12 minutes Matthew Perry is in it is ridiculous.
Secondly, Matthew Perry may have done some outstanding work on television, but I really can't think of any decent films he's made. A couple of them have been downright stinkers. So if on any level I was thinking something like, "well, I've seen about a thousand of these body swap films before, but there must have been something cool and different here if Matthew Perry decided to be in it," well, then what was I thinking?
It turns out that the movie wasn't terrible. But neither is there anything especially good about it to recommend it over any of those 999 other body swap / instant (de)aging movies.
On the plus side, the story is cute enough. It hits all the expected bits, including behavior of "kids today," going to school in the 1980s, and so forth. It brings a smile to your face a few times. Some of the actors filling out secondary characters make their scenes fun to watch, such The Office's Melora Hardin as the school principal, Leslie Mann as the main character's wife, and Sterling Knight and Michelle Trachtenberg as his two kids.
On the down side, one character almost single-handedly brings down the film. The main character has a "best friend since high school" who has grown up into a 30-something self-made millionaire techno nerd. Actually, he hasn't grown up at all. Nor is he anything like a real techno nerd. He's every stereotype Hollywood writers have for nerds, disappointing, cliché, insulting, and even borderline offensive. And actor Thomas Lennon (of Reno 911) imbues this caricature with a manic energy that makes you want to fast-forward the movie any time he's on screen.
But you can't fast forward through Zac Efron. Oh, it's not that he's bad in the movie. Actually, his character is charming and sympathetic and likeable. He's also nothing like Matthew Perry. Any time a movie has to pull this "old version / young version" thing, or put a character into another actor's body, it's all about the performers' ability to sell themselves together as a single person. There's absolutely nothing in the movie to make you believe Zac Efron is Matthew Perry, or vice versa. It doesn't seem to me like this would have required too much homework -- I think anybody in America who owns a television could probably give you a passable impression of... well, "Chandler Bing," at the very least.
As a whole, the movie's not really bad -- it's a light little piece of fluff. But that's really all it is, and probably not worth your time. I rate it a C.
1 comment:
that's interesting to hear your point of view, I have not yet seen this movie but my Brother told me the whole thing was Zac Efron doing a Chandler impersonation spot-on through the entire movie. He thought it was so convincing that they must have filmed each scene twice, the first time with Perry, and again so Efron could mimic the scene.
So they let me borrow the movie and it's on the pile of things to watch but either way it's not high-priority (insert plugs for the pile; Dollhouse, Breaking Bad, Total Drama Island, Death Note...)
the mole
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