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17 Again

Review By: Tom Herrmann
TomHerrmann@TheCinemaSource.com

Movie Grade: C+

I can’t write this review without first acknowledging my initial reaction to the trailer. Yes: this movie is in fact, Big in reverse. A middle aged man is fed up with his life and wishes he could go back to his high school glory days and a mystical figure grants that wish. Sound familiar? With that said, I have to admit that it finds some redemption in how self-aware it is. It blatantly points out that this type of story has been told a million times, even before Big.

The film opens in 1989, at a basketball game that could be Mike O' Donnell’s (Zac Efron) big chance to get into college. That day would soon do the opposite and take away Mike’s chances of going to college. His girlfriend Scarlett (Allison Miller) tells him that she is pregnant and he throws away the game and his college opportunity to be by her side.

Well now its 2009 and Mike has made the depressing decline from teen heartthrob Zac Efron, all the way to Mathew Perry; truly a sad thing to see. Even sadder is Mike and Scarlett (Leslie Mann) getting a divorce, and Mike is living with his long time friend and high school nerd turned software genius Ned Gold (Thomas Lennon). It seems like nothing in his life can get any worse when Mike is given a second chance and is transformed back into his 17 year old self by a mystical janitor-- seriously. Now Mike and Ned are trying to figure out how to get Mike back to normal, all while Mike uses the opportunity to fix problems with his wife and help out his kids.

Again, the film doesn’t add anything new aside from a cheeky sense of humor about its own clichés. If it wasn’t for that, this would just be another case of 13 Going On 30, and nobody wants that. Another good quality of it was the nerdy sense of humor that we get from Ned’s character. Star Wars and Lord of the Rings references will almost never hurt a movie. There is even a fight between Mike and Ned when Ned first sees him and thinks he is an intruder. They start to battle with all of the swords, axes, and of course, light sabers lying around Ned’s house. I felt that scene was a little too much, but it seemed to go over well with the rest of the crowd.

No matter how much comic relief we get, it doesn’t make up for the films abundance of negative aspects. Starting in the beginning, the entire opening scene was way too dramatic. Even before Mike finds out Scarlett is pregnant, everything is too exaggerated. With Efron dancing around the basketball court, it just seemed like I was watching High School Musical 3 again. Once he ...