Like, OMG! It's That Zac Efron Movie!

17 Again is one of those easygoing, contrived, suspension-of-disbelief, body-switching movies that asks so little of its audience — just that it believe most every plot point and most every character development are totally plausible. Easy, right? So in that spirit, I thought I would review this movie as if I was one of the 14-year-old girls who were in the theater with me. Here goes ...

OMG, Zac Efron is, like, totally hot!! When 17 Begins, he is playing basketball with his shirt off and he's, like, all sweaty. But Zac's not just hot, he's also, like, totally a nice guy. And we know that because his best friend is, like, the biggest loser in the school. But that's okay, because Zac is the captain of the basketball team — OMG, just like in the High School Musical movies! — so no one says anything bad. Okay, but things go wrong because Zac gets his girlfriend pregnant and then he doesn't go to college, and when he grows up, he's, like, a total loser who isn't good to his wife or his two kids. Oh, and he's played by that guy Chandler, from Friends. So because it's much cooler to be Zac Efron, he asks to go back to when he was 17. And then he tries to make up with his wife and kids, only they don't know that this totally hot, cool guy is really their husband/father! And no one really cares that he looks EXACTLY like he did when he was 17 — not even his wife, who was his high school sweetheart! Can you believe it?! I know! They're all, like, "OMG! We get to hang out with Zac Efron!" And Zac is so dreamy, with his bangs and all, and he gets to wear cool clothes and play basketball again. And of course, he gets his wife to totally forgive him for everything because, well, Zac is so sweet. So yeah, this movie is, like, so good ...

Yeah, I'm not really a 14-year-old girl. (Really.) So suffice it to say, 17 Again wasn't Best Picture material for me. I only went to see it because somebody has to support Matthew Perry's career. But thankfully, the movie is tolerable if you know what you're going to get. Oddly, it does get really geeky at times — I think all the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings references are going to be lost on all the tween girls in the audience — but then Zac reappears and his amiable, easy charm distracts effectively enough. Hot or not, the kid can carry a movie effortlessly. There's also a decent soundtrack, which includes the Kooks' "Naive," so that makes it enjoyable too. Have I written more than enough about this movie by now? Yeah. So I'll just give it my grade (C+), move on, and ask that we not speak of this review ever again. Thanks.