3 high school seniors throw a birthday party to make a name for themselves. As the night progresses, things spiral out of control as word of the party spreads.
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Two years after the bachelor party in Las Vegas, Phil, Stu, Alan, and Doug jet to Thailand for Stu's wedding. Stu's plan for a subdued pre-wedding brunch, however, goes seriously awry.
Director:
Todd Phillips
Stars:
Bradley Cooper,
Ed Helms,
Zach Galifianakis
A middle-aged husband's life changes dramatically when his wife asks him for a divorce. He seeks to rediscover his manhood with the help of a newfound friend, Jacob, learning to pick up girls at bars.
As the result of a childhood wish, John Bennett's teddy bear, Ted, came to life and has been by John's side ever since - a friendship that's tested when Lori, John's girlfriend of four years, wants more from their relationship.
High-strung father-to-be Peter Highman is forced to hitch a ride with aspiring actor Ethan Tremblay on a road trip in order to make it to his child's birth on time.
Director:
Todd Phillips
Stars:
Robert Downey Jr.,
Zach Galifianakis,
Michelle Monaghan
A high school slacker who's rejected by every school he applies to opts to create his own institution of higher learning, the South Harmon Institute of Technology, on a rundown piece of property near his hometown.
Dave is a married man with two kids and a loving wife , and Mitch is a single man who is at the prime of his sexual life. One fateful night while Mitch and Dave are peeing in a fountain when lightning strikes and they switch bodies.
While trying to avoid the clichés of Hollywood romantic comedies, Dylan and Jamie soon discover however that adding the act of sex to their friendship does lead to complications.
Director:
Will Gluck
Stars:
Justin Timberlake,
Mila Kunis,
Patricia Clarkson
Three seemingly anonymous high school seniors attempt to finally make a name for themselves. Their idea is innocent enough - let's throw a party that no one will forget, and have a camera there, to document history in the making. But nothing could prepare them for this party. Word spreads quickly as dreams are ruined, records are blemished and legends are born. Written by
Warner Bros. publicity
Rated R for crude and sexual content throughout, nudity, drugs, drinking, pervasive language, reckless behavior and mayhem - all involving teens (also extended cut)| See all certifications »
Many of the minor antics in the party were improvised by the extras, including the girl getting caught urinating because she actually had to urinate. See more »
Goofs
When the neighbor knocks on the door and talks to Thomas, he tells him that his friend Oliver came over earlier to inform him about the party related noise. Oliver is actually the first name of the actor who played Costa, who was the one informing about the party. When Costa goes to the neighbors to tell them about the party, he introduces himself as Oliver. So, the neighbor is just using the name he was given. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Costa:
What up my lovely females? This is your boy Costa, your host for the evening. Behind me is Thomas Kub's house. Today is Thomas Kub's birthday,
[grabs crotch]
Costa:
and this is Project X, yo.
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As a preface to this review, before anyone's knee-jerk reaction is to dismiss my opinions as those of a prude: I'm not at all opposed to "hard-R" comedies. In fact, I love many of them. But something about this one rubbed me the wrong way - indeed, to even refer to it as a "movie" seems wrong: there were scenes chronicling the party that basically devolved into mini-music-videos focusing on naked girls. And not even in tantalizing ways -- rather, these scenes felt creepy (especially since a lot of the girls featured are supposed to be high schoolers) -- for example, the director relies upon paparazzi-style upskirt shots. And because the movie is shot a la Blair Witch/Cloverfield etc. with its "found footage" style, it only makes these shots seem all the dirtier and more voyeuristic.
Moving on past that stuff... other flaws: The fact that the main characters were so clichéd and stereotypical of the genre didn't help, either -- the Jonah Hill-type character from NYC was sporadically amusing but overall just seemed to be trying too hard: the mandatory overzealous good friend who's obsessed with girls and thinks he has game but doesn't. So, nothing original or distinct enough to make him different than any other sex comedy character. He made me laugh a couple times, but that's faint praise.
While the first half of the movie is sort of dumb fun, the second just gets derailed by increasingly silly, unrealistic, borderline disturbing stuff - e.g. a huge sequence with a dude wielding a flamethrower at the end was not just stupid but kind of terrifying, like it belonged in a completely different film.
I also didn't like the 'moral' of the story or whatever you want to call its attempts to reconcile its events. Unfortunately I can't discuss it without spoiling the film, but suffice to say the "feel-good" moral closure of Project X felt like an attempt at Risky Business without any of the actual morality behind it. Not to mention the main character wasn't half as likable or realistic as the Tom Cruise character, despite ostensibly looking more like an actual high schooler than Cruise did - alas, that's why good writing is key. The only word I can use to describe the film is...sleazy, but not in a good way.
Think back on what made films like Superbad so much better than much of their genre: it was the characters. They said and did a lot of crude, dumb stuff, but they were rendered as realistic and likable kids and we could relate to them. When they were put in compromising situations - like an out of control party - it was funny because, as corny as this sounds, we cared. They weren't throwaway caricatures of teenagers, or one-dimensional mean-spirited idiots.
In Project X, whose various elements and characters are basically ripped off of superior teen films, you don't particularly care about any of these kids - nor can you relate to them. Is the film enjoyable? People in the theater laughed - I imagine it'll appeal to its primary demographic, which is the teen/college crowd - but I think years from now those viewers will look back on movies like The Hangover and Superbad and realize why those were better.
(P.S. Don't be fooled by misleading marketing -- while this film was indeed produced by Todd Phillips, he did not direct it. The studio is capitalizing on his involvement - and can you blame them for it when the Hangover films have made like a billion dollars worldwide? - but apart from a producer credit, he didn't have anything to do with this flick.)
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As a preface to this review, before anyone's knee-jerk reaction is to dismiss my opinions as those of a prude: I'm not at all opposed to "hard-R" comedies. In fact, I love many of them. But something about this one rubbed me the wrong way - indeed, to even refer to it as a "movie" seems wrong: there were scenes chronicling the party that basically devolved into mini-music-videos focusing on naked girls. And not even in tantalizing ways -- rather, these scenes felt creepy (especially since a lot of the girls featured are supposed to be high schoolers) -- for example, the director relies upon paparazzi-style upskirt shots. And because the movie is shot a la Blair Witch/Cloverfield etc. with its "found footage" style, it only makes these shots seem all the dirtier and more voyeuristic.
Moving on past that stuff... other flaws: The fact that the main characters were so clichéd and stereotypical of the genre didn't help, either -- the Jonah Hill-type character from NYC was sporadically amusing but overall just seemed to be trying too hard: the mandatory overzealous good friend who's obsessed with girls and thinks he has game but doesn't. So, nothing original or distinct enough to make him different than any other sex comedy character. He made me laugh a couple times, but that's faint praise.
While the first half of the movie is sort of dumb fun, the second just gets derailed by increasingly silly, unrealistic, borderline disturbing stuff - e.g. a huge sequence with a dude wielding a flamethrower at the end was not just stupid but kind of terrifying, like it belonged in a completely different film.
I also didn't like the 'moral' of the story or whatever you want to call its attempts to reconcile its events. Unfortunately I can't discuss it without spoiling the film, but suffice to say the "feel-good" moral closure of Project X felt like an attempt at Risky Business without any of the actual morality behind it. Not to mention the main character wasn't half as likable or realistic as the Tom Cruise character, despite ostensibly looking more like an actual high schooler than Cruise did - alas, that's why good writing is key. The only word I can use to describe the film is...sleazy, but not in a good way.
Think back on what made films like Superbad so much better than much of their genre: it was the characters. They said and did a lot of crude, dumb stuff, but they were rendered as realistic and likable kids and we could relate to them. When they were put in compromising situations - like an out of control party - it was funny because, as corny as this sounds, we cared. They weren't throwaway caricatures of teenagers, or one-dimensional mean-spirited idiots.
In Project X, whose various elements and characters are basically ripped off of superior teen films, you don't particularly care about any of these kids - nor can you relate to them. Is the film enjoyable? People in the theater laughed - I imagine it'll appeal to its primary demographic, which is the teen/college crowd - but I think years from now those viewers will look back on movies like The Hangover and Superbad and realize why those were better.
(P.S. Don't be fooled by misleading marketing -- while this film was indeed produced by Todd Phillips, he did not direct it. The studio is capitalizing on his involvement - and can you blame them for it when the Hangover films have made like a billion dollars worldwide? - but apart from a producer credit, he didn't have anything to do with this flick.)