Project X, 2012

CirqueDuCinema’s rating: 5/10

Set The Scene…

It’s Thomas’ birthday and his parents are going out of town for the weekend. Thomas joins forces with his friends to throw a house party. Their intention was to hold the coolest party ever. That is exactly what happened.

So, what did you think?

While I’ve been to a fair few house parties, some of which have turned a little wild (one of which I fell into a hot tub fully clothed) but this is nothing in comparison to what happens to Thomas’ party, which literally turns into a riot full of teens dosed up on alcohol, ecstasy, tits and vomit. There’s nothing Thomas can do to prevent it, try as he may, before he eventually realises that, if you can’t beat them, join them.

Sounds like this film has the potential to be hilarious, right? Unfortunately, it does not meet this potential. For a film that’s about possibly the wildest party of them all, this film was surprisingly dull. It didn’t really evoke laughs from me, more incredulous gasps at what occurs. The trailers from this movie would have you think  that it rivals ‘Superbad’ in its hilarity. In actuality, the movie purely shows a really wild party, held essentially by doppelgangers of the three main characters from ‘Superbad’ (Seth, Evan and Fogell, for anyone not in the know), filmed from the perspective of a party-goer by a handheld camera. This has the effect of making you feel like the movie is legitimate, like it’s really happening, but in doing so, it fails to convey any character development whatsoever, leaving you feeling like you really couldn’t care less about what happens to the three main characters. The plot is sparse. Not a lot really happens, and everything that does happen is either shown in the trailer, or is completely predictable. I would go as far as describing this movie as monotonous. That can’t be a good sign for a film about a party, can it? It is no exaggeration to say that every third scene is a minute, maybe longer, of partying in slow motion set to some club music, which is interesting the first time, laughably repetitive by the fourth time.

Oh yeah, one more thing. All the women in this movie are basically what I can only describe as sex-fodder, rather than actual characters, progressively getting more naked as the film continues and indulging in bouncing naked in a bouncy castle, skinny dipping in the pool, girl-on-girl making out, body shots, etc. It’s unsurprising, given the film is about one crazy party, and I’m sure many people watching the movie will consider this to be a perk of the film, but it would have been nice to have a least one female character that is not portrayed as purely a target for the main characters to try and sleep with. Even the one woman that Thomas genuinely seems interested in has zero real character. Boo.

So, before I roll the credits on this review, one thing that struck me about this movie is how wildly insane the party gets, to the point where you ask yourself, could this really happen? Surely the police would have shut it down?

I present to you this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/apr/14/ukcrime.martinwainwright

There are no words for this other than…oh dear.

Roll the credits!

Kirby: [Filming Thomas] So Thomas, are you having fun?
Thomas: No.