Casey (Skylar Astin) and Miller (Miles Teller) are on their way to their friend Jeff’s (Justin Chon) home for his 21st birthday. Being best friends since high school, Miller feels that taking Jeff out and celebrate his 21st birthday is the right thing to do. Knowing that Jeff has a big interview in the morning, the 3 agree that they are only having a few drinks and then come home. As the night goes on, so do the drinks, next thing you know Jeff is drunk and passed out leaving Miller and Casey to go around town trying to find Jeff’s home and getting into trouble along the way.
After watching 21 & Over a few times with various folks over the past few days, I was left with a little bit of a dejavu feeling. Once the credits began rolling the first time I felt that I had seen this story before in one form or another. The story is very similar in design and I don’t blame the studio for trying to capitalize on the success of a few R-rated comedies that have come in recent years (The Hangover 1, 2, and 3, Ted, etc.) However, 21 & Over doesn’t really reach that level of The Hangover, even if its writers/directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, who coincidentally also wrote The Hangover, wanted to take there. Let’s face it, the movie is The Hangover set in college that quite pan out. I can see why any executive at a studio thought the pitch was great, after all it’s a great setting and theme, but we’ve seen way too many movie with the same formula in recent times that comparing is really hard to avoid.
21 & Over wasn’t all that flat and unfunny, it did have its moments but they are too few and far in between but they are there. The film revolves around many one liner and punch lines that sometimes they were a hit and sometimes they just flat out were a miss. There were a few racist remarks primarily towards Justin Chon’s character over his ethnicity, who I personally thought was the best character in the film even though he was in it a lot less than Milles Teller and Skylar Astin, but seeing as many R rater comedies cross the boundaries, that didn’t bother me as much as the way the punch lines were done. Perhaps I am over-analyzing it, but the friendship bond and troubles that continuously is ongoing in the film just doesn’t really translate well onto the viewers. At this point why not bring Todd Phillips in?
I think 21 & Over did a few things right in several moments of the movie and did manage to get a few chuckles, but there were too few. The story really doesn’t deliver to its expectations. The theme is good with a good old wild night out on the day where your right of passage as you cross from being a kid to turning 21 finally arrives. It’s great, but this needs some work.
21 & Over arrives on Blu-ray with a 1080p MPEG4-AVC encode framed at 2.40:1 aspect ratio. The video transfer is actually quite nice considering most of the time it is spent in the night. Black levels are deep and inky, but best of all they do not overwhelm the picture and affect the detailing in the picture. Detailing is great all around and it’s very noticeable with close up shots, but best of all are the details on the surroundings specially the school grounds. Colors in the very few day shots are very natural and bright. I didn’t notice any crushing or banding through the film. I have to say that Fox’s transfer is solid.
21 & Over arrives on Blu-ray with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio lossless track. I have to say that this track is great and borderline perfect. The dialogue is clean and clear throughout and even under some of the scenes with a lot of ruckus the dialogue doesn’t get overwhelmed. The rears are always providing great support. Even the LFE comes alive in many different scenes and allows the soundtrack to simply rock! Overall, I really can’t complain about the track considering it is comedy.
Levels of Intoxication – Cast and crew talk about the levels of intoxication and its differences.
Tower of Power – Cast and crew join once again to discuss the tower of power section of the film. They talk about each activity they had to perform to get to the top.
Gag Reel
Trailer
I had higher expectations for 21 & Over, especially since they heavily marketed “From the writers of The Hangover”, but by the end of the movie 21 & Over tried too hard to be like The Hangover. The movie did have some laughs and good moments, but not enough to really win me over and possibly many of you as well. The video and audio are excellent and I am glad to see studios providing quality transfers on all or at least most of their releases. I would consider a rental before you consider buying 21 & Over, it’s really a shadow of what it tries to be.