Film Review: Project X

Director: Nima Nourizadeh

The feature film debut of Nima Nourizadeh, who has previously worked mainly on music videos, sees him collaborate with The Hangover director Todd Phillips (in very familiar territory). The idea with the film was to cast actors who had never acted before or had very little experience which along with the hand held camera filming would make the party scenes very realistic. Thomas Mann who played birthday boy Thomas had to audition 7 times for the role as the producers wanted someone without acting experience as Thomas Mann had acted in It's kind of a funny story in 2010. It is reportedly based on the story of Melbourne teenager Corey Delaney who announced a party on MySpace which resulted in 500 people turning up and clashes with the police.

The party in full swing

Thomas (Thomas Mann) is turning 17 and his parents are going away for the weekend so his friends Costa (Oliver Cooper) and J.B. (Jonathan Daniel Brown) want to throw him a huge party. They do this hoping to sleep with women and to increase their popularity, saying it will be a ''game changer''. Thomas' friend Kirby (Kirby Bliss Blanton) is one of the only people to initially show up to the party but after a while hundreds of people start appearing. The party suddenly moves inside as the hired security, two guys from school; struggle to contain everyone and the party gets completely out of hand.

Unfortunately this seems to be a cross between The Hangover and Superbad except it's not as funny or original as either. The ultimate failing is that there is nothing clever or charming about the characters or the party goers themselves, it's just a lot of expensive party set pieces and montages of people dancing and drinking to the latest dance hits. The film lasts just under 80mins but even with such a short running time there seems to be just a lot of moments added to fill the time. The aspect of the teenagers becoming media hits could have been further developed and given it a different angle from some of the other party films that have been released in recent years.

Costa (Oliver Cooper), Thomas (Thomas Mann) and J.B. (Jonathan Daniel Brown) hide from the ensuing chaos

The character of Thomas Mann worked well in the film and Costa seem to remind me of Jay from The Inbetweeners with his cocky demeanour and clearly made up stories from when he lived in New York. But the unpopular guys throwing a party then becoming popular at school and with girls is hardly original or even done that well here. It's an easy film to watch and the scale of the carnage is fun to watch but don't expect some surprising classic to unfold in front of your eyes.

1.5/4 some funny moments but largely too predictable a plot which becomes absurd at the parties end.