21 & Over
21 & Over
Yes, one’s first legal drink in a bar is a rite of passage, but is it a subject that is worthy of a whole movie? After all, the world is full of rites of passage that probably don’t have real any cinematic value. There is a reason that we don’t see many films about getting your driver’s license (though, there are a few there) or a first haircut, getting to vote or the day you get your braces off? Growing up is just a long series of these firsts and we really aren’t lining up to see them dramatized.
Of course, if 21 & Over stopped at just one, it would not exist. Instead, the three 21-year-old lead characters here drink enough in one night to give an army platoon alcohol poisoning. And when they are not drinking or puking or passing out, they are getting into fights, having car crashes, falling from third story windows and trying to get laid.
All of this stuff seems kind of romantic and funny before you reach legal drinking age, but after you get out of college, turns out to be kind of a drag.
So, interestingly, the target audience for 21 & Over is mostly people who are 21 and under. What’s up with that?
21 & Over longs to be a college-aged The Hangover (it was written and directed by the guys who wrote that film), and it occasionally even connects. However, more often it is reminiscent of the straight to video American Pie Presents movies.
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