21&Over is a Great Comedy Combination of Superbad and The Hangover!

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]Would movies like this get appreciated today? I turned 21 about 12 years ago, but I had my first drink when I was 19.

[00:00:06]After turning 21, the hype of going to bars goes down a bit, but that moment is glorious. Even though you don't have a lot of money at that age, and so most of the bars you go to are extremely shitty with an intimidating bouncer. You don't exactly have wine nights at 21 years old. I drank a lot of Bud Lights and played a lot of beer Olympics. I love buttered nipples. That was the drink for me back in the day. Wish I watched The Big Lebowski at that time. Better turn those into white Russians. But 21 and over captures the feel I mentioned to a T and combines Superbad and The Hangover really well. An interesting chase with semi-likable but flawed characters that we're still rooting for, and we know things are going to work out for them at the end. Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, who wrote The Hangover, make their directorial debut in this movie.

[00:00:49]They might have the most polarizing filmography, in my opinion. Rebound, which I loved as a kid with Martin Lawrence cooking, Four Christmases, Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn reunion, the Bad Moms movies with three incredibly funny leads, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, and Kathryn Hahn, and I kind of ride with Office Christmas Party as well, which they provided the story for. But they also wrote The Change-Up, which was atrocious, and includes one of the most disturbing lines on the planet, "Let's have sex before this turns into a threesome." And Jexi was abysmal and a waste of Adam Devine.

[00:01:19]But 21 and over uses Miles Teller the way I really like him. This is post-Project X and The Awkward Moment, which I ride with, by the way, which features a young MBJ.

[00:01:29]Ben pre-Top Gun Maverick. Kind of like the funny friend Miles Teller instead of being for this boxer.

[00:01:36]But now post the success of Top Gun, we're never going to see him like this again. Plus, I think he might be a bit too old.

[00:01:41]Skylar Astin from Pitch Perfect plays an excellent goody-two-shoes and the annoying kid that's condescending about everything and everyone. Justin Chon, who plays Jeff Chang, and really shines playing the obnoxious drunkard. How can you not laugh at the scene where the police officers tell him to get down?

[00:01:57]And then we have Sarah Wright who plays Nicole, who has that generic look similar to Halston Sage and Neighbors, but is actually quite good. She's flirty, but also warm and fun and really brings a certain presence to her smile.

[00:02:09]And lastly we have François Chau who plays the scientist from Lost, and he plays a tiger dad in this movie.

[00:02:15]The only person I would have changed is the dude who played Randy, Jonathan Keltz. Even though he's supposed to play a goofy, violent douchebag, something's still missing from the performance.

[00:02:24]This movie not only has some great college bar scenes, a drinking tournament scenario where the stakes matter, well, at least so we thought at that time, which is reminiscent of my 20s, the necessary sexual scenarios in a pre-2020 comedy with an interesting twist of Teller and Aston having socks covering their well-endowed equipments, some amazing one-liners taking a drive-by at Tom Hanks' Da Vinci Code, maybe an offensive reference towards leukemia, but it also addresses an extremely important topic quite early.

[00:02:51]Asian kids are in a supreme level of stress compared to most because of the pressure put upon them by their parents, which I can relate to honestly. And some can handle it and others take it out in other ways. And Justin Chon's character, Jeff Chang, who his two friends assumed would be crushing it in college and will breeze through med school, is actually flunking. One cause is he doesn't want it, and two it's really daunting. In 2026, this topic is overplayed and the mental health game is a marathon, not a sprint, but at that time I was thinking this is handled really well and all it takes is for Jeff Chang's dad's presence rather than beating us in the head with sappy monologues. Overall, this is a fun watch and I hope you guys give it a try.

[00:03:29]It's on Amazon Prime, by the way. My name is Neelash Balanji and hit your boy up with a like or subscribe. Thanks so much. Bye.