Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

21 & Over Blu-ray Movie Review

Probably only funny to those 21 and under.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater June 22, 2013

Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the screenwriting team behind The Hangover, have apparently made a niche for themselves: the "one night amok" genre. Their latest project—which they wrote and directed—is 21 & Over, a frantic bacchanal that takes the blackout drunk premise of The Hangover and applies it to characters who are 10-15 years younger, a trio of newly legal-aged pals out for their first big night of university town bar-hopping. Now, there have been numerous movies about college dudes getting wasted and losing control, and the most we can say about 21 & Over is that it is definitely one of them. There's nothing exceptional or even particularly noteworthy about this thoroughly mediocre buddy comedy, which mistakenly seems to think that it's pushing the envelope of crass humor. But tired racial stereotypes, vomit gags, and partial male nudity do not an edgy movie make. This is a film that leaves you feeling completely indifferent; it's not bad enough to dismiss out of hand —see Fox's other comedy release this week, the dreadful Movie 43—but not good enough to enjoy with any real enthusiasm.

The setup is simple; Twilight's Justin Chon plays JeffChang—his friends pronounce it as one word—a college senior whose father (Lost's Francois Chau) is the archetypal Asian helicopter dad, an overbearing doctor who has carefully arranged his son's medical school entrance exam interview for 8 a.m. the morning after the film begins. The conflict? It's also JeffChang's 21st birthday, and his two old high school buddies have come to visit him at "Northern Pacific University"—the movie was actually shot on Seattle's University of Washington campus—to celebrate in boozy style.

Casey (Skylar Astin) is the more straight-laced of the pair, a soon-to-be Stanford grad who already has a lucrative finance job lined up, while Miller (Miles Teller) is the party-hard dude-bro who secretly dropped out of college two years ago and now works at a gas station. (He's the sort of guy who talks about how "high school was so awesome.") JeffChang agrees to go out for a drink or two, but of course one bar leads to another—and another, and another—and soon he's harassing bouncers, peeing on crowds, and puking in slow-motion on a mechanical bull. When he inevitably passes out, Casey and Miller realize the gravity of the situation; they've put JeffChang's future in danger, and they need to get him home and sobered up in time for his interview. The only problem? They have no idea where he lives.

And so they set off on an episodic post-midnight adventure through the campus and its environs, following a series of mostly fruitless leads. Dragging the unconscious Chang between them, they solicit help from a carefree blonde (Sarah Wright) whose sole purpose in the film is to get Casey out of his buttoned-down shell. They accidentally set a bull loose at a bonfire. They break into a sorority full of feisty Latinas—hola stereotype!—only to end up in some sort of cultish, Eyes Wide Shut-meets-The Skulls-style tribunal, where they're stripped naked, paddled with cricket bats, and forced to make out for the amusement of the assembled sisters, wearing goat masks and black robes. (Wait for the obligatory why do you have a boner joke.)

The film's centerpiece is a dorm party called "The Tower of Power," where Casey and Miller have to complete a series of drinking games to advance to the top of an eight-floor building and ferret information out of the R.A., a "chubby Elvis look-a-like" who's gone all Colonel Kurtz, sitting shirtless on a wicker throne with gold beads around his neck. 21 & Over tries to have wacky, memorable characters—hey look, it's an old dude in a Native American headdress, dancing around on LSD!—but it tries too hard and ultimately feels like a put-on, the sort of college drinking movie that a pair of directors would make after watching a whole Netflix queue's worth of truly great college drinking movies.

Like I said, though; it's not necessarily good, but neither is 21 & Over actively bad. It isn't quotable or memorable, but it is watchable. (That is, you won't be cringing your way through it like you do Movie 43.) The three leads are fine in their roles—Skylar Astin is especially likable, and probably deserves be in better films—and the familiar characters have comfortable-but-satifying arcs that have them emerging on the other side of the story as better people. Or, at the very least, better partiers.

21 & Over Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

21 & Over comes of age on Blu-ray with a 1080p/AVC-encoded presentation that looks great for a fairly low-budget comedy. Shot digitally, the movie actually has a very filmic look courtesy of the Arri Alexa cameras used in production, which have a noise pattern that's similar in structure to analog film grain. Since nearly all of the film takes place at night, in extremely low-light situations, you will notice a lot of this source noise, but it's never distracting in the least, and its presence is greatly preferable to an image that's been artificially smoothed out with digital noise reduction. There are no real picture quality slip-ups here—no excessive edge enhancement or other types of filtering, no blatant compression problems—and, for the most part, the image is sharp and lifelike, with visible fine detail in the areas where you normally notice it. (Though there are some soft-ish-looking shots that are probably attributable to imprecise focus.) Black levels can get a bit too dense in certain outdoor scenes, but otherwise, the contrast balance is right where it needs to be. Color is graded carefully too, with a realistic but slightly warmed up appearance. All around solid, this one.

21 & Over Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track also meets expectations for this kind of comedy. Meaning, you won't get the room-quaking aural output of a blockbuster action movie, but the film's sound design more than exceeds what's required from it's dialogue-driven content. The rear speakers are quietly but effectively engaged for ambience—the crowds at packed bars, the crowds at packed parties, the crowds at a packed bonfire pep rally—along with occasional cross-channel effects. The various hip-hop/party songs featured in the film also fill out the mix nicely, usually anchored by loud low-end. Everything has good presence and clarity, including—most importantly—the actors' voices, which are never muddled in the balance. The disc includes optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles, which appear in easy-to-read white lettering.

21 & Over Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Levels of Intoxication (HD, 3:48): A tour through JeffChang's stages of drunkenness.
• Tower of Power (HD, 3:08): A short featurette about the eight levels in the "Tower of Power," a.k.a., the "drinking Olympics."
• Gag Reel (HD, 2:24)
• Theatrical Trailer (HD, 1:43)
• Sneak Peek (HD, 10:22)

21 & Over Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

21 & Over is The Hangover for a younger crowd, but it just doesn't pack in as many laughs. Drunk dude-bro humor can only take the movie so far; what it lacks is the element of surprise that made The Hangover such an unexpected hit. You know exactly where 21 & Over is going at all times. It's not a bad movie—there are a few laughs to be had, and it's not as vociferously stupid as it could've been in lesser hands—but it pales next to some of the better recent collegiate bacchanals, like Old School. Oh well. If you're still curious, 20th Century Fox's Blu-ray release is decent—strong picture and sound, a few worthwhile extras—but a rental is your best option. This just isn't a comedy that rewards repeat viewings.