Despite its collegiate setting, 21 and Over is pretty much for people with an IQ of 21 and under.
This inane wannabe Animal House seems to delight in offensive racial stereotypes, caustic ethnic slurs and a wrong-headed tone that makes light of suicide, binge drinking and gun violence.
There’s nothing to recommend the stupidly immature 21 and Over (* ½ out of four; rated R; opening Friday nationwide). Not unless the idea of watching projectile vomit spew in slow motion for about 60 seconds sounds like a good time. If that doesn’t do it, there’s always the sight of a guy on his 21st birthday who’s so drunk he climbs up on the bar, strips off his pants and urinates on an unsuspecting crowd of fellow revelers..
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Directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, writers of The Hangover, are responsible for this raucous mess that makes college life look like it’s intended only to churn out graduates ready for the Betty Ford Center.
The story centers on college senior Jeff Chang (Justin Chon), whose overbearing father (Francois Chau) expects him to go to medical school.
Enter his best pals from high school, Casey (Skylar Astin) and Miller (Miles Teller), who surprise Chang on his 21st birthday, coming from out of town to take him drinking to celebrate.
He wanly resists their offer because of a med school interview early the following morning. But the obnoxious Miller threatens to blow an air horn outside his apartment all night if he won’t hit the bars with them. Instead of telling his friend to shove off, Chang relents.
Once he starts drinking, all manner of mayhem ensues, including the aforementioned gross-out gags and a bevy of bacchanalian montages. There’s an obligatory flirtation between Casey and Nicole, a vapid, blond sorority girl (Sarah Wright) whose yell-leader boyfriend is one of Miller and Casey’s nemeses.
When Chang passes out, his out-of-town pals don’t have a clue how to get back to his apartment. Their quest to get him home takes them into the next day and robs them of their clothes. Along the way, they have brushes with the law, stage a hospital breakout and a sorority break-in, and partake in a long string of drinking games. Somewhere a buffalo enters into the equation.
Astin, who starred in last year’s Pitch Perfect, is a likable actor who was far more engaging in that musically centered movie. Teller, who plays one of the more annoying 21-year-olds to hit the big screen, managed a wonderfully nuanced performance as a sad teen who crashes into and kills a young boy in 2010’s Rabbit Hole.
Inexplicably, the guys always refer to their pal as “Jeff Chang,” as in “I think we killed Jeff Chang.” Among the litany of racist jokes, Miller assumes Jeff Chang is a science brainiac because he’s Asian-American. Latinas, ethnic Serbs and Jews are also mocked.
In possibly even poorer taste is its dismissive attitude toward a suicide attempt and a long scene of Jeff Chang driving drunk and eluding the police. Few rowdy comedies are known for their responsible tackling of serious subjects, but why interject them at all in a movie that just aims to be silly fun?
It could be argued that this is a post-racial take on the crass comedy genre centered on youthful overindulgence, in the vein of The Hangover or the Harold and Kumar movies. But the defining distinction between those films and this one is humor. Those other movies have it, and 21 and Over comes up short.
