It's the splurge out of moment that my legs turned right to Cathay cinema, not straight to DG MRT. I guess my irk towards CPA has taken its toll by reflex. Or, my whole day of laptop breakdown made me impulsive to suddenly watch movie. How horrifying. Put that aside, as I was queuing, my cinema watching habit started to kick in. I was prepared to walk away if the cinema didn't have the seat that I wanted, but they did have so with the numb mind I sat there in between screaming fan girls. Ugh, what a way to watch a movie.Okay, let's start to talk about the movie now. I'm not a Western chick flick girl, I'm more into dorama girl, J-dorama to be exact with the must factor, ikemen. So, with the ikemen factor checked on 17 Again, the show begins with skepticism in mind.
The trailer did fulfill its purpose. It made you curious and it made you laugh. The laugh factor was definitely there as I laughed 80% out of the time. The plot was rather compact which makes the movie flow and stop just nice that you don't feel so anti-climax in the end. Efron does lots of fan service enough to make the fan girls keep screaming all out throughout the movie while drooling over him... throughout the movie too.
What I like the about this movie, well, aside from the ikemen factor (there, it's all out! I'm just a sucker for ikemen :p) are:
- Perry and Efron did a good job in acting as one person for the grown up and the teen version. Throughout the whole movie, I didn't feel a bit that Mark (Efron) and Mike (Perry) are actually acted by 2 different people. Efron got me on the acting side, though. I'm a sucker for ikemen but I'm very seldom impressed by their acting skill, which is why I was skeptical about the movie in the first place. But Efron did make an effort in this movie. I wouldn't say his stares are as heart wrenching as Kimutaku but, yeah, he's good. There are moments that he would put the face full of Mike's regret towards the past that definitely has the tears fall down already in doramas, but the tears didn't fall down and that makes the scenes even sadder. And to look convincingly in love with an older woman as if they're the same age, that's a very good effort need of some praising. Off course this is a chick flick, not an Oscar nominee movie, but I'm not into movies that require lots of deep thoughts, so it's just right for me. Lol...
- The movie is not just focusing on the main lead. The characters around Mike (his best friend, kids, and soon to be ex-wife) starting to develop in between the movie and in the end standing by themselves as individuals which making the movie quite heartwarming in some sense, and off course, it means a happy end. If you compare the heartwarming rating against what I've seen in J-dorama, it's way below the dorama level. But for Hollywood standard, it's quite good.
- Definitely the laugh factor. This is one of the very few western chick flicks that can crack me up again and again till the end of it. The dialogues were funny and rather smart, especially between Ned and Mark or Ned with the principal. There were tons of hilarious moments both geeky and cool way, depends on how you see it.
- The story? Not really original that you'll feel like seeing 13 Going on 30 in reverse mode. Also, we've seen other movies with similar themes when the main character turns back to past, transform to his/her younger self to make things right. But what makes this one different? It feels current, that's for sure. It throws current parenting issues like dealing with the kids' insecurities, sex education, and even basketball coaching. It shows the gap that parents face with their teenage kids, which takes communication to close it. Definitely a movie that parents should also see (mothers definitely are happy to watch as they can gawk on Efron with their daughters -- having some mother daughter bonding sessions Lol)..
So, what's your decision?
1 comment:
if Zac Efron plays his cards right, he will be one of the most sought after actors in Hollywood
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