Who would’ve thought Zac Efron, star of the High School Musical movies, could do more than prance around singing and playing basketball? Who would have imagined that he’d have a funny bone in his body? As reluctant as I am about to admit, 17 Again was good fun. And most of the credit actually goes to Efron. Yeah, I’m as bewildered as you are.

I’ll tell you right away that I had this movie screening marked on my calendar because honestly, I found the trailer too promising to behold. A movie with Efron without Hudgens clinging to him 24/7? A movie about time travel/body switching? The trailer was enough to hook me like a pot dealer on weed. Yes, it’s been done before in 13 Going On 30, Freaky Friday, Hot Chick, etc., so sue me if I like body-switching, time-travelling comedies.

Matthew Perry plays Mike, someone whose idea of life turns out below expectations. On the verge of a divorce, with two teenage kids who can’t quite stand him, he wishes he didn’t throw his future away to pre-martial sex. He meets a weird all-knowing old man, and the next thing he knows, he’s Zac Efron, high school basketball star once again! With the help of an old friend Ned (Thomas Lennon), he enrolls himself in the same school as his kids, believing he can re-live his golden years. And he wants to watch over his adolescent children at the same time. Is this starting to sound creepy? It gets creepier! His daughter thinks his concern for her means something else, and at the same time teenage Mike still lusts and loves Scarlett (Leslie Mann), adult version. 17 Again is one of those PG movies that will make you think about the rating twice, because incest and pedophilia are completely okay for children.

Which really, is what makes me like 17 Again. It’s uncomfortably hilarious, and doesn’t shy away from being super inappropriate. You need to suspend your belief a little, seeing how his grown wife can’t seem to accept the fact that Young Mike looks exactly like how Adult Mike used to look like. I also don’t believe for a moment that his own kids couldn’t recognise their dad, aged 17 or not. Still, it is this convenience that makes the movie the comedy it is.

A thoroughly enjoyable popcorn flick, and one that points Efron in the right direction. Looking forward to more of this stuff.

(First published at InCinemas)