{"id":4776,"date":"2013-03-01T05:55:46","date_gmt":"2013-03-01T13:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=4776"},"modified":"2013-03-01T05:55:46","modified_gmt":"2013-03-01T13:55:46","slug":"the-hangover-weekend-at-bernies-21-and-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=4776","title":{"rendered":"‘s = 21 and Over"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"24_0004_C--(merged)\"<\/a>
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\nI\u2019ve been spending my off time watching a fascinating documentary series on Netflix entitled \u201cThe Story of Film: An Odyssey\u201d. Here\u2019s a link<\/a>. It is a 15 part mammoth production by Irish film critic Mark Cousins that chronicles the entire history of cinema starting in the late 1800s with footage of workers leaving a factory and ending with the stunning technical achievements of \u201cAvatar\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday I watched Episode 7 which covers the beginning of Modern\u00a0Film-making\u00a0as Bergman and Fellini begat Godard and Truffaut and so forth. The reason why I bring this up is two-fold:<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I would like you to seek this show out if you are a fan of the movies (which considering you\u2019re reading this I\u2019d put 8 bucks down on \u201cYes you are\u201d).<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I wanted to warn you that the notion of Cinema as a living, breathing art form is the worst idea to occupy your brain with right before you see \u201c21 and Over\u201d.<\/p>\n

Now I am a firm believer in there being a time and place for all sorts of movies. I do not think that film should only provoke deep thought and I\u2019m more than aware that the makers of this flick were probably not striving for High Art but \u201c21 and Over\u201d strives for nearly nothing. It is a fleeting entertainment focused directly on a crowd made up of kids firmly below the age of 21. But these films can be more than just a stream of \u201cI want to F your sister\u201d jokes, can\u2019t they? They can at least be viewed a few years after their release and still contain a chuckle or two, right? I will be shocked if anyone will care about or even remember this film in 12 months\u2019 time.<\/p>\n

And it is not that the men behind \u201c21 and Over\u201d don\u2019t know how to make a comedy with some staying power. First time directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore both co-wrote the screenplay for \u201cThe Hangover\u201d which is probably the last American Comedy that made any noise. That film held humor for people of all walks of life: My mother and father-in-law can watch it and cry laughing while a 14 year old boy has plenty to giggle about too. Like the carbon copy sequel to \u201cThe Hangover\u201d (which Lucas and Moore had nothing to do with), \u201c21 and Over\u201d touches on many of the same elements but falls short of humor.<\/p>\n

I can guess the 3 second pitch was \u201cThe Hangover\u201d meets \u201cA Weekend at Bernie\u2019s\u201d. 2 kids meet up to surprise their friend at college on his birthday. All three friends have grown apart. One\u2019s a loud mouth Alpha type, the other is a straightened- up future Wall Street Warrior. The one turning 21 has an important medical exam early the next morning but they go out and party besides this fact. Chaos ensues.
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\nWhile \u201cThe Hangover\u201d skips to the next morning, this time we see the \u201cCrazy Night\u201d and its entire nuance. Accidental darts to the face. Blind folded sorority girls making out. A Pep rally featuring a pissed off buffalo. And Beer pong. Plenty of beer pong. As these incidents get stringed together the characters have mini-moments of clarity that are supposed to signify some sort of personal growth that should hint at a character arch but it never really pans out.<\/p>\n

I did laugh a couple of times and the young stars here have enough charisma I suppose. But there is truly very little here. If this rehash of \u201cThe Hangover\u201d is how Lucas and Moore want to spend the rest of their career may I suggest a 3 second pitch myself? \u201cThe Hangover\u201d meets \u201cMannequin\u201d! I\u2019m not sure what that entails but it could be any worse than this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been spending my off time watching a fascinating documentary series on Netflix entitled \u201cThe Story of Film: An Odyssey\u201d. Here\u2019s a link. It is a 15 part mammoth production by Irish film critic Mark Cousins that chronicles the entire history of cinema starting in the late 1800s with footage of workers leaving a factory […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[223,4660,10972,17809,20934],"class_list":["post-4776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-21-and-over","tag-comedy","tag-jon-lucas","tag-scott-moore","tag-the-hangover"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}