.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

My girlfriend has a crush on Zac Efron. Not a 'Hey, I really think he's cute' crush. No. I am talking about magazine pictures ripped out, television appearances DVR'd, and (I am pretty sure) bedroom daydreams while pretending to re-read the Twilight novel series. Despite being old enough to be his mother, my life-partner let's out a sigh of adoration at even the mention of his name.

So it was no surprise that mere hours after the release of 17 Again, Efron's new Freaky Friday spin of a film, that the girlfriend was tugging on my pant legs like a dog in heat looking for me to escort her to the theatre so that she could sit sin some sort of transfixed love trance for 90 minutes.

Always the martyr, I obliged.

17 Again begins with Efron playing Mike O'Donnell, a high school basketball star that leaves behind a potential scholarship and fame when he hears that his girlfriend Scarlett (Leslie Mann) has become pregnant. His life from this point forward (played by Matthew Perry) is one built out of the regret of not fulfilling the unknown destiny that might have awaited his promise. As we flash forward into his adult life, we see a beaten down man that has a wife that wants a divorce, two kids that are indifferent and a job that passes him for a promotion despite his long tenure.

This leads O'Donnell back to his high school where he meets a janitor who hears his desire to relive his past and grants his wish hours later when Mike is sucked into some kind of vortex black hole thingy.

Luckily for the screaming fans (including one sitting in the chair beside mine holding my arm), Zac Efron reappears as the young O'Donnell and the movie from this point goes down the normal path of a comedic redemption film in the vein of every Disney role reversal film ever made.

This doesn't make 17 Again a bad film. Just makes it an unoriginal one.

We watch as the young O'Donnell befriends his own kids, goes back to high school and takes on the bully and all the while works to thwart Scarlett's attempts to get on with her life as a single dating parent. At times, the situations run icky (teenaged Efron dancing with older Mann) to the real icky (teenaged Efron being seduced by his teenaged daughter played by Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Michelle Tratchenberg). There are tender moments, such as a court hearing where the young O'Donnell speaks to Scarlett from a broken heart, but all in all the film runs like a Disney made for television special with a few performances that stand out to keep the film above a mediocre margin.
Most notably are the two leads played by Efron and Thomas Lennon as the very funny, rich and geeky Uncle Ned that plays the father figure to Efron's adolescence. Where Efron gets the cheers, Lennon steals the movie with the laughs and will have even grown men running home to check on line to see where they could get the custom Star Wars bed.

17 Again is truly a safe film. Safe and fluffy. And with all the bad news we get on a weekly basis via the daily news, it was kinda nice to slip into 17 Again.