Review: 17 Again

A kind of reverse-Big this was Zac Efron's Post-High-School-Musical let-see-what-you-can-do vehicle. Although Matthew Perry puts in a very decent performance as the adult version of Mike a brow-beaten dad who out of duty married his high school sweetheart this is Efron's show. Although not meeting the same standard of Tom Hanks' performance in Big he still does quite well in capturing some of Perry's mannerisms. The script does Efron no favours being quite weird in that Mike's daughter and wife both fall in love with the teenage version of him and the bonding with the son storyline is often put on the backburner. The more likeable storyline is the sub-plot in which Mike's friend and faux-father Ned tries to date the principal (played by Jan from the Office).

Although there are some bright spots in the film and Efron gives it his all this is all too predictable and unfunny to be a great film in the way Big was. Leslie Mann phones it in as Perry's wife while the casting of 23 year old Michelle Trachtenburg as Perry's daughter pushing believability through the window. This will appeal to teenage girls everywhere but for anyone not obssessed by Zac Efron avoid this.