Project X
Two and a half stars (out of four)
Rated: 18A
Project X reflects so poorly on American life and values, it could serve as an al-Qaida training video.
A wise person — or maybe just someone I met at a party — once told me that it’s the job of each new generation to shock the previous one.
If that’s the case, then members of Generation X (1961-81) should brace themselves for Project X, the teen comedy where Generation Y (1982-2001) tazes them the way the movies of John Hughes, Ivan Reitman and others zapped their excitable Baby Boomer forebears.
Project X, a house party turned riot, actually isn’t much of a movie.
It’s a slag heap of steals from similar films, roughly spanning the booger-flicking expanse from Animal House in 1978 to Superbad in 2007.
The difference here, and what may make this guilty pleasure one of those cinematic signposts that mark the passing of the years, is the way Project X so aggressively ups the ante for outrageous sex, drugs and property damage.
So whereas Animal House had John Belushi as a human zit and Porky’s had Kim Cattrall as a different kind of Lassie, Project X has a groin-punching midget and a face-humping terrier.
And whereas Risky Business had a sports car in a lake, Project X has a sports car in a swimming pool and a flame-throwing drug dealer terrorizing an affluent Pasadena, Calif., neighbourhood.
It strains for the sweetness of Superbad with its copycat casting: leads Thomas (Thomas Mann), Costa (Oliver Cooper) and J.B. (Jonathan Daniel Brown) are slightly grosser and less-loveable versions of the sex-seeking nerds played in the earlier film by Michael Cera, Jonah Hill and Christopher Mintz-Plasse.
The filmmaking is another rip: yet another found-footage deal, with a mostly unseen fourth character (Dax Flame) magically videotaping every moment of mayhem.
Female characters are there mainly for groping and grossing out, but Kirby Bliss Blanton charms as a gal who is tired of being treated as one of the guys.
The high-concept setup: Shy Thomas is turning 17, and his best buds — gangsta wannabe Costa and weird clown J.B. — want to throw the mother of all parties at Tom’s house while his parents are away. Tom wants the party to be “big enough to be cool” but then Costa invites all of Pasadena.
Directing is credited to newcomer Nima Nourizadeh.
But Project X mainly bears the greasy paw prints of Todd Phillips, who directed The Hangover and its sequel, plus Old School.
He really knows how to trash a place. The last 20 minutes could have you watching the screen through horrified fingers.
The parent and homeowner in me were both appalled by the debauchery and incredible property damage.
The teenage boy in me couldn’t help but smirk anyway.
Peter Howell is a syndicated movie critic for the Toronto Star.