’17 Again’ Movie Review
In “17 Again” Zac Efron plays the teen version of Mike O’Donnell and Matthew Perry plays the adult Mike O’Donnell. In this funny comedy Mike O’Donnell gave up his college basketball opportunity when he finds out his girlfriend is pregnant and runs off the court during the final seconds of a basketball game with a college scout watching.
Now, 20 years later he starts to blame her,isn’t close with his kids,and is getting ready to have a divorce. One night he falls over a bridge while chasing after a mysterious old man he met earlier at his old high school. After he emerges,he realizes he’s “17 Again”. Thinking that he has a chance to do it all over again, he returns to high school,and asks hs best friend, Ned Gold (Thomas Lennon) to play his dad so he can enroll him in school. He joins the basketball team and starts redo his senior year of high school all over again, but in the midst of it all he starts to learn a couple of other things.
He gets closer to his kids once he sees how they really live their lives since he is now one of their peers. He helps his son join the basketball team,helps mend his daughter’s broken heart when she gets dumped by her boyfriend,stops bullies from picking on his son, and just plain has fun. In conclusion, he again makes it to the big game day were he has the chance to impress the college scout. But after all that, he does what he did the first time around, and quits the game to chase after the woman he loves.
My Take : This was an extremely funny movie. Especially the part of Ned Gold played by Thomas Lennon. He always freakin cracks me the hell up in these films he’s in. I just saw him in , “I Love You,Man”as the gay guy. He’s so freakin hilarious. Then there’s of course the star himself, Zac Efron. Hey what can I say? He’s a star for a reason. He did an excellent job in this film,and his onscreen Chemistry with Thomas Lennon is some of the best comedy I’ve seen. This movie was definitely funnier than I thought it would be. The storyline ran smoothly,and had a nice interesting start to the film which brought Zac Efron back to his “High School” musical roots a little bit. All in all, I was not dissappointed. I definitely recommend this film.
Grade : A
Movie : 17 Again
Release Date : April 17,2009
Studio : New Line Cinema (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Cast : Zac Efron, Leslie Mann, Thomas Lennon, Michelle Trachtenberg, Matthew Perry
