Review of 17 Again (2009) by Mike C — 04 Mar 2012

What can I say. Mr. Efron does have a certain likability about him. Plus he may be next in line to date Dear Taylor, plus this movie was on TBS and I had nothing to do. Not like I rented it... Regardless, not an awful movie. It's light, as it's supposed to be, and I laughed a few times so it was okay.

A worthy comparison, though there are many in this genre, is to The Change-Up, perhaps the most recent of the switch movies that also happens to feature Leslie Mann as the wife. This is a much, much cleaner switch movie. Probably not as funny, but it also lacks some of the dumb humor in Change-Up (which was really a hated movie by most).

Not sure of the message as it was fairly lame. To begin with, the original 17 year old got his girl pregnant and did the nice thing by chasing her instead of his dreams. But I fail to see why they could not be mutually exclusive. Going off to a big college on a scholarship would have been beneficial to a young family, even if long distance for a few years. Then, the story is kind of odd as Efron returns and has weird relationships with his son, daughter, and wife...but as the dreamy, athletic high school kid. Then, what is the message at the end: it's just all going to work out? Nah. Perry's not very likable. It will never work out with him instead of Efron around.

Ned Gold was pretty funny. His romantic interest is scorching hot, especially with the pointy ears at the end. Trachtenberg is a scorcher though her crying scene probably explains why she is less in movies these days and more on tv shows. Efron is pretty good in these rolls. He's pretty damn smoothe. Maybe he will try a real drama someday. Charlie St. Cloud doesn't count.