Review: 21 & Over

The Indian Express rating: *

DIRECTED by the guys who wrote The Hangover,this film reiterates that it was the X-factor that put that 2009 film apart from the crowd. The Hangover’s three friends and a hangers-on entered familiar circumstances and ended up on entirely unexpected grounds. 21 & Over,about one drunkeen spree by three students graduating from an American college,the night before one of them has to appear for a medical school interview,goes nowhere we haven’t been before in films about graduating American students.

Except,that is,having fun with the stereotypes Americans have of their minorities,be it Asian,Jews,Latinas or even Serbs. All harmless,but all very,very predictable. Astin looks much older than his Jewish Casey,Teller takes his foul-mouthed act much too far,while the “Chinese” Chon,who one would like to see more of,conveniently spends more than half the film asleep.

shalini.langer@expressindia.com