I love movies. If you’re reading this site, I’m guessing that you love movies too. Every so often you read about a film or a script that renews your faith in films, and at times you hear about projects that make your skin crawl. The film Seventeen is one of the films that makes my skin crawl. I mean crawl!
It was annouced last week that High School Musical’s Zac Efron and Friends‘ Matthew Perry would be starring in Seventeen, a “body swap comedy” where “middle aged” Perry wakes up to find he’s seventeen again, and not only that, he looks like Efron.
I know you’re reading this and thinking; “why is Niall writing about this film?”
The reason is, this is my first proper screen rant!
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I don’t mind family films, I don’t mind unoriginal ideas, I don’t mind people making films for a paycheck, but do we really need yet another bodyswap film?
We’ve had Big, Vice Versa, Freaky Friday, 13 Going on 30, Freaky Friday (the remake) and to an extent Disney’s The Kid (which by chance had a Matthew Perry cameo).
How many times can they try and milk the same cash cow?
It’s not like there’s anything new to this film’s premise. What makes it worse Matthew Perry is only 37 years old. What major impact can this story have? What can they bring to the table that wasn’t covered in the above mentioned films?
It just makes me angry.
What infuriates me even more is that Perry could be a great comedy actor. I read a few years ago that he aspired to have a career like Tom Hanks, so you can see why he took this role, but did he have to pick a role that is so similar to an iconic Hanks character?
I know his film career hasn’t taken off, but he could build a half decent filmography without picking up Hanks’ sloppy seconds.
It just makes me angry.
If the script is fantastic and there is a new spin on the genre let me know. I’d be happy to be wrong.
Seventeen is unleashed in cinemas next year.
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4 Comments
“How many times can they try and milk the same cash cow?”
Answer: until that bitch is dry. And then five more times.
I’d hesitate to call this trend a “cash cow”. While some of those movies you listed did better than others, I don’t think any of them made the kind of money that makes Hollywood think “Gravy Train”.
To paraphrase a colloquialism: Never attribute to greed, what can easily be explained by an extreme lack of imagination.
Burbanked, LOL… you know it, bud.
Vic
Groaann.. another bodyswap/age-swap trite.
And as usual, when all else fails in the film, they’ll put in scenes of adults behaving like retards (’cause they’re actually teenagers trapped in adult bodies), or just throw in lots of slapstick to let us know how awkward the people are in swapped bodies.
Booorrriiinngg..
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