As a preface to this review, before anyone’s knee-jerk reaction is to dismiss my opinions as those of a prude: I’m not at all opposed to “hard-R” comedies. In fact, I love many of them. But something about this one rubbed me the wrong way – indeed, to even refer to it as a “movie” seems wrong: there were scenes chronicling the party that basically devolved into mini-music-videos focusing on naked girls. And not even in tantalizing ways – rather, these scenes felt creepy (especially since a lot of the girls featured are supposed to be high schoolers) – for example, the director relies upon paparazzi-style upskirt shots. And because the movie is shot a la Blair Witch/Cloverfield etc. with its “found footage” style, it only makes these shots seem all the dirtier and more voyeuristic.
Moving on past that stuff. other flaws: The fact that the main characters were so clich?d and stereotypical of the genre didn’t help, either – the Jonah Hill-type character from NYC was sporadically amusing but overall just seemed to be trying too hard: the mandatory overzealous good friend who’s obsessed with girls and thinks he has game but doesn’t. So, nothing original or distinct enough to make him different than any other comedy character. He made me laugh a couple times, but that’s faint praise.While the first half of the movie is sort of dumb fun, the second just gets derailed by increasingly silly, unrealistic, borderline disturbing stuff – e.g. a huge sequence with a dude wielding a flamethrower at the end was not just stupid but kind of terrifying, like it belonged in a completely different film.
I also didn’t like the ‘moral’ of the story or whatever you want to call its attempts to reconcile its events. Unfortunately I can’t discuss it without spoiling the film, but suffice to say the “feel-good” moral closure of Project X felt like an attempt at Risky Business without any of the actual morality behind it. Not to mention the main character wasn’t half as likable or realistic as the Tom Cruise character, despite ostensibly looking more like an actual high schooler than Cruise did – alas, that’s why good writing is key. The only word I can use to describe the film is.sleazy, but not in a good way.
Think back on what made films like Superbad so much better than much of their genre: it was the characters. They said and did a lot of crude, dumb stuff, but they were rendered as realistic and likable kids and we could relate to them. When they were put in compromising situations – like an out of control party – it was funny because, as corny as this sounds, we cared. They weren’t throwaway caricatures of teenagers, or one-dimensional mean-spirited idiots.In Project X, whose various elements and characters are basically ripped off of superior teen films, you don’t particularly care about any of these kids – nor can you relate to them. Is the film enjoyable? People in the theater laughed – I imagine it’ll appeal to its primary demographic, which is the teen/college crowd – but I think years from now those viewers will look back on movies like The Hangover and Superbad and realize why those were better.
The director, Nima Nourizadeh, makes his film debut with PROJECT X, the whole found-footage feel from the film, makes it seem real obviously, so get ready intended for shaky cameras, and producer Todd Philips (“The Hangover”) makes sure to offer you that same “holy sh*t” feeling from whenever you watched the first THE ACTUAL HANGOVER. To me, PROJECT X is essentially SUPERBAD on steroids. With 88 minutes of running time, you really dont need any longer time or less, you see how that they plan the party, how the word receives out and things get completely out of hand. The movie to everyone was funny, not to the point i always couldnt breathe, but funny enough to help entertain me. Thomas, is the most average kid out of the crew, the normal one plus the most likeable, Costa is the pal who thinks is cooler versus other two and often comes off like a jerk and JB automagically is the fat pal who gets made fun of, a lot. While this movie stands alone to be a comedy in the located footage department, it definitely had its hilarious moments, the dialogue between the characters is certainly something youd hear young people say. This movie doesnt aim to offer remarkable acting worthy of your award, or a lesson after the movie, the only thing the item aims is to make you need to be at that party and it does it perfectly. From the music, to the WTF minutes, more than one teenager will wish that they were at this celebration. When it comes to parents however, this is the movie they will NOT see.
Everything youve imagined at the party happening, happens here, and maybe even additional. To the point of getting helicopters over the residence, neighboors calling the SWAT crew, a Mercedes inside the pool, and even at one point even radio stations promoting your house celebration, etc. this movie makes a new statement to changing the game about parties. PROJECT X to me felt more like an experience, youre just at the theater to presence bad decisions unravel and discover how the greatest bash of all time turned out to be.
http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/watch-project-x-2012-online-free.250114553/