17 Again (2009)
Directed by Burr Steers
On the brink of a midlife crisis, 30-something Mike O'Donnell wishes he could have a "do-over." And that's exactly what he gets when he wakes up one morning to find he's 17 years old again. With his adult mind stuck inside the body of a teenager, Mike actually has the chance to reverse some decisions he wishes he'd never made. But maybe they weren't so bad after all.
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It then goes the extra mile by casting Zac Efron, featuring lots of strictly-from-hunger comedy tropes ("Star Wars" gags, comic kicks to the groin) and recycling the old plot about the adult suddenly trapped in the body of a teenager.
Best Thing About It: Thomas Lennon from Reno 911! as Matthew Perry's high school buddy, a former super-nerd who grew up to develop software, get rich and live in a Star Wars memorabilia-filled home.
Step 4: Do pay attention to the hilarious performance by Reno 911‘s Thomas Lennon, as Mike’s former geeky high school friend, now a multi-millionaire software designer with a penchant for all things fantasy – from Star Wars to Lord of the Rings.
There's little doubt that 17 Again suffers from a fairly labored opening half hour that's exacerbated by a pronounced emphasis on egregious instances of overt silliness, with such deficiencies epitomized by Mike's friendship with Thomas Lennon's almost unreasonably over-the-top Ned Gold (ie the character, a millionaire computer guru, sleeps in a Star Wars-inspired bed and engages in a sword fight with light sabers).
But as the title states, somehow Perry magically morphs back into the Tiger Beat/Bop-ready Efron, and what follows is a mélange of the Freaky Friday body switch comedy with the maudlin mush of something like The Family Man with--in a rather ballsy, can't-win-at-all move--Back to the Future.
Screenwriter Jason Filardi ("Bringing Down the House") probably watched "It's A Wonderful Life," "Peggy Sue Got Married," "Back to the Future," "Big," "Heaven Can Wait" and "Freaky Friday" to get ideas for the story.
While it's not in the same classic league, the movie has a nice Back to the Future vibe to it.
You can complain all you want about the film’s shameless piracy of films like “Big” and “Back to the Future,” but that doesn’t change the fact that “17 Again” is more fun than most people probably expected.
A limp reverse retread of "Big," "17 Again" not only follows in the wake of that classic 1988 Tom Hanks film, but also pales in comparison to more recent body- and age-switching comedies such as 2003's " Freaky Friday " and 2004's " 13 Going on 30 ."
Screenwriter Jason Filardi ("Bringing Down the House") probably watched "It's A Wonderful Life," "Peggy Sue Got Married," "Back to the Future," "Big," "Heaven Can Wait" and "Freaky Friday" to get ideas for the story.
Back in the late 80's, we had such age traveling films as "Big," in which Tom Hanks is a little boy who gets an adult body and father/son swaps like "Vice Versa," itself a spin on the mother/daughter reversal of 1976's "Freaky Friday," so the time seems ripe to resurrect the genre with "17 Again," a kind of merging of these films with "A Wonderful Life."
The movie might sound a lot like Penny Marshall's "Big" in reverse, but thanks to some great performances from its cast, “17 Again” manages to succeed as its own entity.
While the temptation is there to label the feature as a body switching comedy along the likes of a backwards “Big,” “17 Again” isn’t aiming for a whimsical handle to the laughs.
A reverse Big, as it were.
Back in the late 80's, we had such age traveling films as "Big," in which Tom Hanks is a little boy who gets an adult body and father/son swaps like "Vice Versa," itself a spin on the mother/daughter reversal of 1976's "Freaky Friday," so the time seems ripe to resurrect the genre with "17 Again," a kind of merging of these films with "A Wonderful Life."
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In fact, the whole impetus for the plot comes when his wife, Scarlett (whom he calls "Scar" -- what is she, the Apache from "The Searchers"?) kicks him out of the house and throws his belongings in a woodchipper.
A limp reverse retread of "Big," "17 Again" not only follows in the wake of that classic 1988 Tom Hanks film, but also pales in comparison to more recent body- and age-switching comedies such as 2003's " Freaky Friday " and 2004's " 13 Going on 30 ."
The premise here is an oft-used one that clearly hasn't hurt the careers of Lindsay Lohan (Freaky Friday), Tom Hanks (Big), and Jodie Foster (the original Freaky Friday): An older person either exchanges his body with his child or through some unexplained force finds himself young again.
Screenwriter Jason Filardi ("Bringing Down the House") probably watched "It's A Wonderful Life," "Peggy Sue Got Married," "Back to the Future," "Big," "Heaven Can Wait" and "Freaky Friday" to get ideas for the story.
Suddenly he meets a bearded old school janitor that he winds up saving, It's a Wonderful Life-style, by jumping into a river.
But Mike finds himself in school with his own kids, daughter Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg, "Ice Princess," TV's "Gossip Girl") and son Alex (Sterling Knight) and discovers instead a chance to become a better dad.
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Zac Efron fails to impress with his first major headlining roleMatthew Perry (2004's " The Whole Ten Yards ") plays the older version of Mike with more depth and less screen timewhile game supporting performances from Leslie Mann (2008's " Drillbit Taylor "), Michelle Trachtenberg (2006's " Black Christmas ") and Thomas Lennon (2009's " I Love You, Man ") are wasted on a tone-deaf, half-written script that does them no favors.
A limp reverse retread of "Big," "17 Again" not only follows in the wake of that classic 1988 Tom Hanks film, but also pales in comparison to more recent body- and age-switching comedies such as 2003's " Freaky Friday " and 2004's " 13 Going on 30 ."