1/5 Starring Zach Efron ‘amp; Matthew Perry Directed by Burr Steers Rated PG-13
It’s ’17 Again,’ again. While it’s only six years after ‘Freaky Friday’ (the re-make) and nine after ‘Seventeen Again’ (starring the now 30 Tia and Tamara Mowry), it begs the question: how many more times are we going to be forced to watch midlife-crisis-addled adults return to their wonder years? They weren’t popular then and ‘mdash; no big surprise ‘mdash; they aren’t now.
As slow-mo shots pan over the usual nostalgic high school spots, a frizzy-haired 1989 version of Mike O’Donnell (Zac Efron) is at his golden-boy prime. It’s the championship baseball game, and, so far, his life is ‘High School Musical’ perfection. Hell, he even gets all ‘Hairspray’ on our ass, improvising a flashy half-time routine.
But in midst of his idealistic adolescent dreams, Mike’s girlfriend drops a not-so-perfect bombshell, forcing him to choose between collegiate stardom or tying the knot and raising his bundle of unexpected joy. He responsibly decides the latter.
Fast forward 20 years to burned-out, 30-something Mike O’Donnel (Matthew Perry) on the edge of a non-prenup divorce, with children that hate him, no promotion in sight and a dweeby best friend. But after a visit to his old stomping grounds and a run-in with a creepy Santa-like janitor who leads him to a magical wormhole, Mike drops into the alternate universe where he’s fit, fine, fast and 17 again.
With Efron taking a leap outside his Disney-contracted norm, the film at least fronts two competent and genuinely funny actors. Believing that this is his one chance to regain faded glory, it’s no shocker that high school really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be ‘mdash; the ass-kicking and STD-infected popular sluts are pretty accurately portrayed.
Efron fans should be warned, however: The sneaky PG-13 rating might bar the majority of preteen groupies from getting in.
With all the dysfunction surrounding Mike’s family, ’17 Again’ makes a limp attempt to push limits, but usually relies on goofball antics to extort laughs. For the most part, whatever you assume might happen probably will ‘mdash; with the exception of a few comedic quirks.
Efron’s performance is pleasantly surprising ‘mdash; clearly he packs more than the sing-and-dance number we’ve witnessed for nearly three years. As he stated in his recent monologue to tweeny boppin’ fans on Saturday Night Live, ‘If it weren’t for you, I’d just be a random college student. Instead, I’m a college-aged man pretending to be a high school student!’ Thankfully, his days of pretending seem to be waning.