A guy whose life didn't quite turn out how he wanted it to and wishes he could go back to high school and change it. He wakes up one day and is seventeen again and gets the chance to rewrite his life.
The young heart throb Zac Efon of Disney Channels 'High School Musical' series fame, pressed all the right buttons for comedy and lightweight entertainment with the Disney Channels films, but is not convincing at bring the actors body he is jumping into that of Matthew Perry to life, none of Perry's mannerisms are really there and although Efon has comic timing and is a good young actor, you never feel it is Perry in Efon's body, ultimately this effects a number of key scenes.
Still the casting of Thomas Lennon as friend ED is fun, allot of the laughs come from his over the top performance, which brings original laughs to a film which copies allot from other body swapping movies like 'Big', 'Visa Versa' and even the masterpiece 'Back To The Future' which has an actual scene ripped from it. Zac Efon awakens and thinks he has been dreaming the whole body changing experience, then finds out his daughter in replacement to the mother in 'Back To The Future' is trying to hit it off with him. It does'nt stop with copied scenes there are a number of themes copied from the 'Back To The Future' original.
'17 Again' does have charm. Still as good as Zac Efon is, he is never quite convincing enough at portraying the personality of Matthew Perry. So as rewarding this new 'Big' for the 2000's is ultimately the problems lie in its young lead and the fact we have seen this all done before but better. We all know what happened to Tom Hanks after the hit of 'Big' can Zac Efon do the same?
