17 AGAIN

You might have seen it before - you know, a movie about the adult going back to relive high school?



There's Freaky Friday, where the mom and daughter change bodies. We've seen both the original with Jodie Foster/Barbara Harris, as well as the remake with Jamie Lee Curtis/Lindsey Lohan.




And you may or may not (probably not) remember Vice Versa, with Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage as a father/son that trade bodies.


Then there's Like Father Like Son, where Dudley Moore and Kirk Cameron play the father and son body-trading team.




And my all time favorite movie is Peggy Sue Got Married, where Kathleen Turner faints and wakes up to find herself back in high school.

Actually, I think that Peggy Sue is the one that most resembles "17 Again", because nobody trades bodies here. There's only the adult who's made a mess of his/her life and wishes they could go back to do things differently. At least they think they would do things differently!


You might think that since this plot has been done before, that 17 Again might not be worth your time. But if you are a big fan of the time travel genre, as I am, you will love 17 again!

Matthew Perry plays Mike O'Donnell, a husband and father who gave up college and a basketball scholarship to marry his pregnant high school girlfriend, Scarlett. Years later, she's kicked him out because she is tired of hearing him complain about the life he "could have had" if he hadn't have had to marry her. In one scene, as he looks at his high school basketball photo, a "mysterious stranger" asks him if he wishes he could be 17 again, and Mike says, yeah, he does. Later, he sees this mysterious stranger on a bridge getting ready to jump. Mike goes after him to save him. Later, when he gets home and is changing clothes, he looks in the mirror and discovers that he is...17 again. His best friend (who he's been staying with since Scarlet kicked him out) poses as his "father" and they get Mike back in high school, where he gets a second chance at the basketball scholarship. At first he thinks that this has happened to him so that he can get back the life he lost, but soon he realizes, as he gets to know his kids from a different perspective, that the purpose of his experience might be different than he first thought.

I know Zac Efron is a big star because I see his face plastered everywhere. But I have boys, and so my household has just not gotten into "High School Musical. I gotta say, I am impressed with his acting! I was convinced I was actually seeing Matthew Perry in Efron's body because he did such a great job mimicking Perry's facial expressions and mannerisms!

Of course, its predictable, as this genre of movie often is. But those of us who like this genre think that's ok, as long as the characters are believable and we connect emotionally with the movie. Great movie!