How far would you go to become a legend?
Would you have more people in your backyard then some countries in the world? Would you obliterate your parents’ million dollar home? How about set your entire neighborhood ablaze? For Thomas, Costa, and JB this was just the tip of the iceberg.
We welcome back Todd Phillips, infamously now known for Producing such films you may have heard of like The Hangover, The Hangover Part 2, Due Date and Old School.
Phillips brings us a film in Project X unlike we have ever seen before.
Imagine the most insane, mind-numbing, seizure inducing high school party possible, then multiply that by about million, and you have yourself, Thomas Cub’s epic birthday bash.
It’s hard to describe this film, because so much is happening all at once.
Don’t listen to the people that want to compare Project X with The Hangover or Super Bad, while there are some similar underlying tones, all three films are very different.
Project X begins with Oliver Cooper who plays Costa coming to Thomas’ house on the day of his birthday with plans of throwing a big soiree as JB would say. The catch is Costa hired an AV nerd, Dax, to film the entire event, from a first person point of view.
Now most of the film is shot this way, and when I noticed the first few minutes were continuously through this perspective, I was worried for the rest of the film. Rest assured, there is no shaky camera for two hours, and it does not become a distraction.
In fact, for this film it was actually the perfect way to present the party.
Thomas Mann plays Thomas, he’s sort of a “loser” as even his dad describes him, while JB played by Jonathan Daniel Brown is the token fat kid who chimes in with awkward input here and there.
Costa is the brains of the operation, he wants to throw Thomas a huge party for his birthday while is parents are out of town, while at the same time get laid and become infamous for all of eternity throughout California.
The greatest quality of Project X is how bad it makes you want to be there.
With the first-person camera view, you’re engulfed into the madness, from all the crazy dancing, to massive amounts of drug use to outrageous hijinks performed by various party crashers. It literally comes off as the greatest party you’ve ever seen. EVER.
And for that to be depicted so vividly on film by Todd Phillips and director Nima Nourizadeh, deserves a drunken stupor-like round of applause.
Then there is the music. Todd Phillips has been known to be ahead of the curb with music selection in his films, and the choices he makes here are phenomenal. Every major scene is accompanied by a great song, that gives this monstrosity of a party the feel it deserves.
As the party progresses obviously things go haywire. From a missing dog, to midgets, to jumping off the roof of the house, that doesn’t even give you a taste of what is about to come.
The element of surprise, in terms of shock and awe of what will be around the next corner is the basis for Project X.
If you don’t leave this film wanting to go out and have the night of your life, you don’t have a pulse.
I give a ton of credit to the casting of this film. One of the best things they did was bring in the three leads who are unknown. It made you really enjoy the journey because there was no star power. Will this film catapult Oliver Cooper, Thomas Mann or Jonathan Daniel Brown into stardom like it did for Jonah Hill in Superbad, time will tell.
There use to be a T.V. show on Nickelodeon called “Wild and Crazy Kids” well this is the high school version…with more drugs, nudity, swearing, and fire.
Simply put, this is the greatest, most unfathomable set of events taken place at a party that we have ever seen. And we all haven’t lived life to the fullest unless we were apart of it. Because after you finish watching it, you’ll be wishing you were there, you can count on that.
Fast Tube by Casper
I watched the film yesterday and I was surprised by the many negative reviews this film has received. I think most of them didn’t really catch what the film is about so I felt it would have been useful to share my thoughts in the hope that they’ll help the ones that didn’t get it to better understand this movie.
Law and Order: Special Victims Unit is one of my favorite television shows, even though its gone a bit downhill lately. Is it the cast? No, because they are mostly intact. What is actually happening is that each of the main characters, known for their superb chemistry amongst each other, are suddenly spending less screen time with each other and more time to themselves. This story actually has a point. On Stranger Tides suffers the same fate: fantastic cast that don’t spend as much time with each other as we hope. Add some pointless plot lines, a calmer first-third of the flick, and you have yourself the fourth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean.
