21 & Over [Blu-Ray]

Having written staunchly Republican and disturbingly insular breeder "comedies" The Hangover and Four Christmases, Jon Lucas and Scott Moore have demonstrated a knack for finding the broadest of humour in rather crass, heteronormative traditions. Gags about cheesy pick-up lines, degrading sex with prostitutes, the inappropriate handling of babies and accidental homosexual insinuations pretty much define their narrow universe, with the occasional set of breasts spicing things up enough to give their straight, white, middle-class audience something to think about while having dry missionary sex in overpriced designer beds. The only distinction about their directorial debut, 21 & Over, is that in addition to being bland, repetitive writers, they're also borderline incompetent directors, having no sense of comic timing or how to employ tonal transitions to make their almost redundant story at all effective. Essentially, as the title suggests, this is The Hangover for the frat boy crowd, featuring three similarly defined archetypes — loudmouth dick Miller (Miles Teller); uptight straight man Casey (Skylar Astin); and the mild-to-wild, drunken Jeff (Justin Chon) — yapping at each other endlessly about pussy and careers. The dramatic impetus stems from their now fledgling relationships. Having been best buds in high school, they've each followed their own path: Miller is on his way to being a full-time alcoholic loser; Casey is sweater-vesting up the business world; and Jeff is struggling to live up to the expectations of his father. Their reunion and resulting realizations about each other lead to lessons all around, and the repressed homosexual notion that male camaraderie is the key to living a well-adjusted life of partially restrained indulgence. Of course, this little pearl of wisdom comes amidst a drunken evening of partying the night before Jeff has an important meeting with one of his father's contacts. He gets wasted, pisses on a bar full of people, barfs while riding a mechanical bull and eventually spends most of the evening passed out in a bra with a teddy bear crazy glued to his junk. Miller and Casey then go on a journey around his college campus trying to find out where he lives so they can put him to bed and get him to his important meeting. A hot chick and some budding romance cheesiness are thrown into the mix, as is a male cheerleader bully that instigates fights with the trio and is eventually trampled by a Buffalo (in one of the only entertaining scenes of the film). The Dude, Where's My Car? template even allows the boys to sneak into a Latina sorority, where they take advantage of two blindfolded pledges for their own titillation (women aren't real people in this world, so it's supposed to be funny rather than disturbing). Since these diversions are handled with the same stylistic sensibilities as the occasional heavy-handed discussion about Jeff's possibly suicidal nature, there's a strange void where comedy should be that even the relentless babbling of Miller is unable to fill. The only funny thing about 21 & Over shows up in the gag reel, when a police officer points out that Jeff has a nice body while he's dancing nude on a car. Otherwise, the Blu-Ray has supplements on playing drunk and a discussion about the "Tower of Power" — a frat game montage sequence involving beer pong, suck and blow, and keg headstands — padding the package with a bit of marketing fluff.