17 again (2009) back to back with 18 again (1988)

Thursday, April 21, 2011 0 comments
    Remakes are everywhere nowadays, aren't they? Karate Kid, Arthur, The Green Hornet, The Italian Job, Ocean's Eleven, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland and a lot more!


    I don't know where in the internet that I came across the movie 18 again, but I did. And yes, I really thought that 17 again was a remake and I was like "OhMiGosh! That too is a remake?!" But no! (sorry to disappoint you, well maybe not, i realized that it's not really disappointing, haha!) it is not. 


     Firstly, comparing the two would not be a good thing to do, since the other one is not really a remake. So I guess that's what I'm not going to do here or hope I don't do.


On 17 again (drama/romance/comedy/fantasy)


    Still having regrets on a decision you have made before? What if you have the chance to repeat that moment and redo things? This was the chance given to Mike O' Donnell. In his senior year in High school he was a star basketball player with hoops away from earning a scholarship for college but he chose to live with her surprisingly pregnant girl friend. After 20 years, he became this guy (Matthew Perry), in the midst of divorce with his wife because of his attitude problem. He then met a janitor at his former school whom he then called his spiritual guide. Mike woke up from falling in a river (was it a river?) with his 17 year old body (Zac Efron). With he help of his best friend Ned (Thomas Lennon),he then tries to make things right by following his dreams but then it turned out that it was a chance not for him to relive his life again and choose basketball but to make things right with his family-his wife Scarlett (Leslie Mann) and children Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg) and Alex (Sterling Knight) . 


     I love teen flicks, so I watched this. Not really a big fan of Zac Efron. I think he's just fine. I may not be dazzled by how he smiles (see whose smile I am dazzled with, in a bit) but his sparkling blue eyes does the charm! I too am a fan of Matthew Perry a.k.a Chandler in the sitcom Friends (I love friends and one of his movie The Triumph/The Ron Clark Story).

  It was a funny (especially the awkward moments with Mark and Scarlett and their daughter) and really heartwarming movie you'll surely enjoy. I actually cried on the part where Mark (the teen mike) read a letter (supposedly from Mike the adult) to Scarlett in the courthouse. It was really touching up to the point where Scarlett took the paper and realized that it was him all the time. It's free to fantasize that someone will love you the way Mike love Scarlett, even though it took him to relive again his life, he still chose to be with his one true love. It's really romantic.

     Yes, in life, there is the so-called reality. What the movie showed us is not really that applicable in real life (duh! that is why it is a fantasy), but we should not think that because we can't go back to were it all started, that we can't make things right. Sure we can! We just have to believe in ourselves and to the people believing in us. If we make mistakes, don't let them be a burden for us to keep, rather see it as an opportunity to build our selves again. People will be there to help us, no matter what (Like Mike and Ned's friendship). There would be always an answer to everything. In God's time, He'll allow us to eventually find this answer in our lives and He'll never give us problems that we can't handle. We just have to trust Him and ourselves.

     I really like what they did on the credits part, where they used a younger picture of the casts and crews making it look like a yearbook. it was really creatively cool.

On the other hand, with 18 again (comedy/fantasy). 

   You are 81 years old and you have everything you could ever ask for, what would you still wish for? Thinking of yourself being too old? What if you were given a chance to be young again? What would you do? (Another question, haha, too much questioning!)

   This is a story about a teenage kid (David Watson-Charlie Schlatter) and his grandfather (Jack Watson-George Burn) who after an accident, switched places- Jack in the body of David and vice versa, though David was stuck in his comatose body of his grandfather while Jack got to live the life of David as an 18 year old boy.

   David is a college student who is bullied by his fraternity brothers and is shy with girls. He like a girl named Robin who is seeing the guy who bullies him (just when things can't get any better). Jack now in the body of David, has come to know those things and he began to act to change those. With Jack's wit, wisdom and charisma, he had turn David's life like never before. He also realize so many things in his life, about his friends, his partner, especially his family.





     Charlie Schlatter really had acted so well-comically. I find his acting remarkable since he had pulled through the old man/young kid vice versa role. He was really entertaining to watch and his smile (oh yes, his smile!) was to die for (just look at him!) - way overly charismatic that's what he is (I hope to find his other movies!, though its kind of few, so depressing, with that much of a talent). And yes George Burn's very appealing energy and humor (He actually reminds me of Dolphy- an actor comedian here in the Philippines) - cool to have a grandfather like him(I really am not close to my grandfather, since he lives in the province and it's really seldom that we see each other and I usually would get shy around him).

   I would really recommend this movie for you to watch, it's really very entertaining. Despite the fact that I don't actually know the actors, I really find them very watchable. It does have a little drama touch, but more of a comedy - real comedy.

    Both films have actually taught us to be open-minded and empathic- putting ourselves in the shoes of others (or in the case of Mike, your same self but on a different context). Unlike in the movies, we really can't experience those things to understand things that matter. We could really realize a lot of things if we would just think of things on a different perspective.

     Sometimes (or maybe most of the time), we would get angry with people because of different reasons, may it be a parent to his child because of being lazy or stubborn, a child to his parent for being so strict, between siblings because of jealousy, between friends maybe because of being frank but just really being truthful to you, between lovers for so many misunderstandings. We never really tried to understand them, and we begin to judge them already. That is not fair isn't it? Every time I have problems like those I've mentioned, I would always put myself on the position of that person (whoever he or she is) and as calmly as possible try to understand the reason for such. At first it really would be difficult but then you will realize that it is for your own good, they just love you that's why they are like that or maybe (on the bad side) they had done something out of control, out of reason. But still, we should learn how to forgive.

     This is what I really like about movies, they make me realize so many things in life. haha. Do you agree with me here?





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