★★☆☆☆

<Review by: Sailesh Ghelani>

Directed by Scott Moore and Jon Lucas. Starring Miles Teller, Skylar Astin, Justin Chon, Sarah Wright, Jonathan Keltz

From the writers of The Hangover comes this similar tale set with a younger cast but it still has a vulgar Chinese guy and an animal. What it won’t have is The Hangover’s cult following.

This low budget tale about young friends who reunite for a 21st birthday blast for one of them is by no means total rubbish. It has its moments of wit, depth and sophomoric charm. It has those moments where you know you should be squirming at the vulgarity or going tut-tut but you grin instead.

Miller (Miles Teller) and Casey (Skylar Astin) catch up after years of being best buds in high school to surprise their friend Jeff Chang (Justin Chon) on his 21st birthday. They want to celebrate his rite of passage but Jeff’s domineering doctor dad forbids it: his pre-med son has an interview the next day and can’t go out partying. Well you can guess what happens next…

Actually, you may not so let me clarify: the three go out pub hopping, Jeff gets horribly drunk and sick and it’s upto Miller and Casey to get him home. Only, they can’t remember his home address and go in search of hot Nicole (Sarah Wright), a sorority girl Casey has a crush on to find out where it may be. They find the wrong sorority house, invade its Latina membership and ask two young blindfolded pledges to make out for their amusement. They take on Nicole’s jock boyfriend who ends up being mauled by a bull. They also have to play some interesting party games like beer pong and suck ‘n’ blow to extricate information about Jeff’s humble abode. You see where this is all going…

On this drunken adventure, the boys – well mostly Miller and Casey since Jeff is passed out for the first half of the film – rekindle their friendship and wonder why they grew apart. They also learn new things about their supposedly straightforward and studious Chinese friend who ‘looks like a 9 year old Chinese girl’.

21 & Over made me feel, what the fuck was I doing here in Bombay studying. Now I know why all those boys in school wanted to go to America to study back in the 90s. All that booze and sex and more sex. And then they got married, had kids and came back.

Anyway, ummm… yeah 21 & Over is alright because of the sharp dialogue delivery of its actors, the skilful comedic timing of Miles Teller and a few touching moments, which save it from being a lousy film. Go with friends after beer!

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