17 Again (2009)

"17 Again is undeniably enjoyable.  Connie Ogle, Miami Herald
"Often silly but it's an honest, unselfconscious exploration of the conflict between a man's physical and psychological age.  Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
"Hilarious & Heartwarming  Pete Hammond, Hollywood.com

Editor's Note In the vein of FREAKY FRIDAY, PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED, 13 GOING ON 30, and other "switch" comedies, 17 AGAIN answers the fantasies of disgruntled middle-aged parents everywhere, as high school basketball star turned average failure of a dad Mike O'Donnell (Matthew Perry) gets to begin again at age 17 (where--bonus!--he's played by Zac Efron). A strangely IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE-style freak storm sends his body back through time to age 17, and since he's been living with his nerdy zillionaire buddy (Thomas Lennon) after being kicked out of the house by his wife, Scarlet (Leslie Mann), she and their kids (Michelle Trachtenberg and Sterling Knight) aren't privy to the change, enabling Mike to be covert father while posing as a high school student, and to tempt his wife into quasi-cougardom. The temptation never gets too far, thank heavens, for Efron belongs not to any one woman but to all the girls enraptured by his star turn in HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL. He's the reason to see the film and he clearly has great fun playing someone much older and squarer than himself (the idea that he will eventually become Perry again is allowed to carry its own melancholy existential charge). Directed by Burr Steers (IGBY GOES DOWN), this is breezy fun for the whole crazy family, with a soundtrack that includes new and classic songs from the likes of Cat Power, Santogold, Kenny Loggins, and Young M.C.

	Zac Efron
	Michelle Trachtenberg
	Leslie Mann
	Thomas Lennon
	Matthew Perry
	Sterling Knight
	Melora Hardin
	Jason Filardi - Screenwriter
	Adam Shankman - Producer
	Jennifer Gibgot - Producer
	Tobias Emmerich - Executive Producer
	Mark Kaufman - Executive Producer
	Keith Goldberg - Executive Producer
	Jason Barrett - Executive Producer
	Tim Suhrstedt - Director of Photography
	Rolfe Kent - Composer
	Adam Shankman - Director

Hollywood Reporter
"Efron does a fine job in letting the older man seep through his boyish exterior. As the siblings, Knight and Trachtenberg each have moments when they shine..." 04/09/2009

Variety
"[E]nergetic....Efron is ideally cast as a fresh-faced youth with the conservative attitudes of a middle-aged man....The thesp gets a few amusing monologues to play..." 04/09/2009

Chicago Sun-Times
3 stars out of 5 -- "Efron has a Tom Cruiseish charm, and a lot of confidence....17 AGAIN is pleasant..." 04/15/2009

USA Today
"[Efron] has a genial charm and decent comic timing....For a swoon-fest aimed at tweens, 17 AGAIN has a lot going for it." 04/19/2009

Premiere
"[T]hanks to a great performance from Zac Efron, it's actually enjoyable and entertaining..." 04/16/2009

ReelViews 6 of 10
The reason "body swap" movies (in which someone's mind is transposed into a different body) are so popular is because they are ripe with potential. Unfortunately, that potential is rarely reached. Productions like "Big" and "Prelude to a Kiss" are the exceptions, not the rule. "17 Again" falls into the less creative, more generic majority category. Imagine a generic script and mediocre acting and you have unearthed the essence of "17 Again", which appears to have been made for the sole purpose of spotlighting Zac Efron. The target audience is roughly the same as for Hannah Montana: The Movie, and the quality is in the same neighborhood as well...Director Burr Steers lacks the good sense to end the proceedings in a fundamentally satisfying manner. Yes, there's a "happy" resolution, but the conclusion seems rushed is poorly structured. The big "reveal" never really happens and what replaces it is lame. In the end, Mike learns a life lesson about the importance of not taking the ones you love for granted and not regretting paths untraveled, but those things are conveyed with as little subtlety as possible. Despite the PG-13 rating, this movie targets girls in the 8-12-year old range. Older viewers who end up in the auditorium for one reason or another can spend the time daydreaming about when they were 17 and looked just like Zac Efron, too. - James Berardinelli

Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
Mike O'Donnell's wife wants a divorce, his kids are remote, he didn't get the job promotion he expected, and everything else in his life has gone wrong since that magic year when he was 17, a basketball star, in love, and looked like Zac Efron instead of Matthew Perry. He's obviously a case for treatment by a Body Swap Movie...Revisiting the trophy case at his old high school, Mike encounters a janitor who, from the way he smiles at the camera, knows things beyond this mortal coil. If only Mike could go back to 17 and not make all the same mistakes. In "17 Again," he can. He falls into a Twilight Zone vortex and emerges as Zac Efron. They say be careful what you wish for, because you might get it. Mike should have been more specific. Instead of wishing to be 17 again, he should have wished to go back 20 years in time...I attended a screening held by a radio station, which attracted mainly teenage girls who left their boyfriends behind. When Zac Efron took off his T-shirt, the four in front of me squealed as if there were buzzers in their seats. Now that he's a little older, Efron has a Tom Cruiseish charm, and a lot of confidence. Why Matthew Perry was cast as his adult self is hard to figure; does your head change its shape in 20 years?..."17 Again" is pleasant, harmless PG-13 entertainment, with a plot a little more surprising and acting a little better than I expected. Mike is dispatched into that vortex by the bearded old janitor with a delighted smile. The janitor (Brian Doyle-Murray) is quite a convenience, supplying vortexes when needed. - Roger Ebert