21 and Over ( R) ** Some movies make me feel like Danny Glover’s graying cop character in the Lethal Weapon series, who famously kept sighing, "I’m getting too old for this ...". This grossout comedy about one long night of campus partying gone awry is a real clunker for anyone who has seen many of its zillion predecessors from the Porky’s flicks to the American Pie franchise to The Hangover duo, with plenty of stops in between.
Two high school chums surprise their third Musketeer by showing up at his college on his 21st birthday. They want to party; he has a big med school interview the next morning, and a sternly demanding father hanging over him like Damocles’ sword. Naturally, they hit the bars. That’s how you get a movie out of the premise.
There’s little novelty in the evening’s antics or the resolution of nascent adulthood issues among a generic cast of caricatures, played by easily forgettable actors. If you’re just hitting your teens and haven’t seen the better films, you might be amused by this one. The rest of us would do better by watching Animal House for the 10th time. (3/1/13)