Blu-ray Review: Project X (2012)

Ah. Just what the world needed: a mockudrama about a group of high schoolers throwing an epic party. Inspired by an actual party that got way out of hand in Australia back when MySpace was still considered cool, Project X is a film helmed by first time director Nima Nourizadeh that brings us the doomed plight of three nerdy high school students, Thomas, Costa, and J.B. (Thomas Mann, Oliver Cooper, and Jonathan Daniel Brown, respectively) who decide to make Thomas’ 17th birthday party one to remember for all time. Sure, they do — but at what cost to them? More importantly: what cost does the viewer pay?

Imagine lots of annoying rap and house music, a largely unknown cast of youngsters (with a few adults mixed in) engaged in copious amounts of drinking, drug use, and in-general dumbassery. Now add even more exasperatingly awful songs (which, thankfully, drown out the asinine and cliché-ridden dialogue), a good number of naked breasts (the only plus the movie has, in my opinion) and you have Project X: the movie that imprudently attempts to weave a sturdy, storytelling basket out of some slimy old, discarded strings of brown lettuce. Sadly enough, it’s a hit with the younger crowd (duh), who seem to think this dumb, plot-less moving picture is a how-to video (really, some have even tried to stage their own epic parties) instead of a dumb, plot-less motion picture geared solely at taking their money.

Or maybe studio bosses are just trying to eliminate children from the world altogether by promoting this sort of behavior.

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment brings us this ode to stupidity (complete with a number of disclaimers, probably put there at the behest of their lawyers) to Blu-ray with a disc that offers us two cuts of the feature (oh, goodie!): the original theatrical version and the “#XtendedCut” (complete with Twitter hashtag just to be trendy — because MySpace certainly never became passé) which is just as intellectually vacant. The presentation of this low-budget ($12m) moneymaker/waster is a straightforwardly good one, despite being filmed with a number of different cameras (from mobile phones to the real digital deal), and the soundtrack is a loud, loud, well-balanced, loud affair. Special features are only limited to a trio of brief making-of featurettes — and are just as multifaceted as Project X itself. The Blu-ray also sports a DVD and UltraViolet Digital Copy (like I need those!)

And to think: here I was hoping for a remake of either the William Castle/Christopher George film or that Matthew Broderick/monkey flick. Oh, dare to dream, right?