21 & Over

Starring: Justin Chon, Miles Teller, Skylar Astin, & Sarah Wright

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

21 & Over is the directorial debut from the writers of the Hangover trilogy, and it could have easily been called The Hangover Jr. It's Jeff Chang's 21st birthday and his High School friends show up to take him out. With a big interview in the morning, the boys are planning on taking it easy, but things don't quite turn out that way. I was expecting this film to be yet another chance to exploit the magic of the first Hangover film, but surprisingly it does not. The story has many similarities, but also a uniqueness about it. 21 & Over does manage to capture that amazing chemistry and magic that made the Hangover legendary. The whole time I was watching this film, I couldn't help but think, why didn't they put this kind of thought into the Hangover sequels? Don't get me wrong, I liked the sequels, but neither one of this is as good as this film was. Justin Chon, unfortunately only known from the Twilight series, stars in a role that was seemingly made for him. This guy was so freaking funny, that I had to be careful not to piss my pants, almost every time he opened his mouth. The other stand out is Project X's Miles Teller, and while he's much better looking than Alan, he does manage to capture that loveable extreme weirdness that Zack Galifinakis had. It's easy to look at 21 & Over and say it's going to be just like the Hangover, and you wouldn't be wrong. Parts of the film are eerily similar, but the youth factor and college atmosphere does give the film a life of it's own and trust me when I tell you, it was absolutely hysterical.