Project X

What do you get when you cross The Hangover, Superbad, and a found-footage style of filming? 


Not Project X. 


The film, captured in the same style as Cloverfield, Paranormal Activities, and the more recently released, Chronicle, covers the one crazy night of three unknown teens in their never ending quest for high school popularity. Sound familiar? Because it is. It has the exact same plot as every other party movie out there, complete with the sweet-boy-falling-for-his-best-girl-friend-then-ruining-it cliches and all. The only thing that separates this party film from the rest is the shaky cam perspective...and the amount that the party gets out of hand. 


And dear Lord do things get out of hand. Alcohol flows like blood through the party's veins, drugs are passed out like they are bandaids for the wounded, and there is enough grinding to make The Border (a bar on DU's campus for all you non-DU readers) look like a respectable establishment. And keep in mind this is a high school party. Eventually the party gathers a mind of its own and realizes that it is unstoppable. The cops cant do anything and the neighborhood turns into anarchy with its condition quickly deteriorating. Project X takes an interesting perspective to this, almost posing the party itself as the villain of the movie. Showing that parties may get you the popularity you want, but it also comes coupled with the consequences that you deserve. 

Fun to watch, but definitely no Wolf Pack or Superbad clan

The film follows, and I mean literally follows, the three main characters pictured to the left. They are (from left to right), Costa, Thomas, and JB. Thomas is the birthday boy, and he is the most likable of the bunch, and it's also his house where the party is being thrown. Did I mention that the party reaches over 1,500 guests? Yeah, I said it gets out of control. JB is the odd one of the group, he gets lost, and often forgotten within the film, but has the funniest scenes. His description of a certain..."act" shall we say...had me nearly in tears at one point. But McLovin he is not. And then there is Costa. Possibly one of the most annoying characters I've seen in a movie in a long time. He uses the F-word every other word, consistently talks about how cool he is in his hometown, and is just a plain and simple bad friend. I can't shame the actor portraying him, but I can certainly attack the writers for making him a Jonah Hill poser and a huge d-bag. Other than those three, there is the camera man, Dax, who is a goth and really has no lines. Oh, and these two:

BY FAR the funniest aspect of the movie

The security guards, who are children as you can see, are the knockouts of the movie. Nearly every scene with them is hilarious, and the two kids portraying them do a phenomenal job portraying a stone cold assassin-security team. Even when the joke starts to become stale, they are still the film's best source for laughs 9 times out of 10.

Flamethrower at the end of the movie? Completely unnecessary.

But other than a couple funny lines here and there, one particular scene with JB, and the security guards, the film just is NOT funny. It tries to be; it tries really hard in fact, but it just isn't. We have heard all of the curse word combinations before, all the fat jokes, all the sexual innuendos, and we have heard them in better movies. Had this movie come out before Superbad it could have been a different story. But in 2012? All of this material has been done to death in funnier movies with better characters. And what about the scenarios? They are even worse. Does a poor little dog tied to balloons that are floating away sound funny to you? Does stealing a gnome filled with ecstasy just make your sides split from laughter? Does a psycho with a flamethrower attacking a teenage party sound like a good joke? What about waking up in a Las Vegas hotel suite with a tiger in the bathroom? See what I mean? The "crazy" scenarios aren't really all that funny, especially when compared to some of Todd Phillip's better stuff, such as a tiger in the bathroom, which is a classic. 

The movie has ridiculously beautiful women.
Seriously. No one this hot went to my high school.

The one redeeming part about Project X is that it is the party movie to end nearly all party movies. The most entertaining shots in the movie are the ones deep into the fray of the teenage rager. When the phenomenal soundtrack is cranked to 10, and the camera is coasting through the beautiful girls, party tricks, dance-offs, and hooking up, it can't be beat. Luckily, the film has quite a few of these scenes to help redeem it from its lack of comedy and I found myself rocking in my chair a little bit when the rap music was up and the party was lively. And as far as parties go? I mean yeah, this party would have been out of hand...probably the best party anyone would ever go to in their lifetime. But then you remember, it's a movie, and these types of parties don't happen in real life.


Clearly, I was disappointed by Project X. I really thought it was going to be a classic, or at least a really funny movie. But Todd Phillips has seem to run his comedic oil well dry. Let's just hope he can tap another one before he begins work on The Hangover Part III. 


And hopefully The Border can figure out who DJ'd the Project X party and hire them. 


Pros:

• Some genuinely funny scenes. The security guard children steal the show for sure
• Beautiful women, great soundtrack, and awesome, sprawling party shots make for one of the best party movies out there
• Interesting look at the timeline and mind of a party. I like how the party was portrayed as the villain for the latter half of the movie

Cons:

• Not funny. Tries hard and fails hard as a comedy
• Cookie-cutter characters who are mostly annoying. I wanted to punch Costa in the face half the time, or wash his mouth out with soap
• Found footage style is unnecessary and was done as a marketing ploy. I forgot that it was that style of movie until the camera would shake or get dropped
• I could have recited the plot in my head...before I saw the movie. And the flamethrower attack at the end? Talk about completely unnecessary
• Disappointing coming from Todd Phillips. Has me worried that The Hangover Part III might suck

Rath's Review Score: 5.5/10