Review No.89: Project X

The Blair Witch Project has a lot to answer for as it re-introduced modern audiences to the found footage genre which has provided some strong films but has mostly been used to promote the dire Paranormal Activity franchise. In Project X we see the found footage film being used as part of a comedy in which a day in the life of three boys is documented by Dax a character who is only really referenced briefly throughout the film just so we the audience know who is behind the camera. The main gist of the film sees the up himself Costa convincing his push-over friend Thomas to have a massive party for his 17th birthday as Thomas' parents are away. Enlisting the help of their overweight friend JB the trio try and organise as civil a party as possible however when Costa uses various media to promote the party thousands descend on their quiet Pasadena neighbourhood. The main bulk of the film sees Costa try and get Thomas lucky with the pretty Alexis, a girl who would normally be out of his league, even though he is aware that his long-time friend Kirby as a crush on him. By the end of the party there has been a dwarf driving a car into a pool, a fat man jumping from a roof and the whole house on fire. The final scenes set after the party seem to try and create a plot after the raucous film that has come before but I felt that this was too little too late.

It seemed that Project X was mainly an excuse to make a film in which lots of girls get their boobs out while house gets trashed. There are many basic problems to the film number one is that three central characters aren't that sympathetic - Costa is a misogynistic idiot, Thomas is a little dull and JB is the token fat one who has been done to look like Jonah Hill when we first saw him on screen. There seems to be little attempt to mae us care for the trio prior to the party and once it gets started they all get lost in the wildness of it all. The found footage element allows director Nima Nourizadeh the luxury of not having to worry about the camera-work looking polished and the bad jokes are probably the work of producer Todd Phillips who possibly envisaged this as a teenage version of his Hangover films however at least they had characters that you actually cared about. The script isn't even funny substituting actual jokes for swear words, drug-induced mishaps and sexual misunderstandings. There are bigger problems than poor film-making though as Project X is just offensive especially to women who are treated as sex objects and readily remove their tops when they get into the pool that's obviously because this happens all the time in real life! The actress who plays the unattainable Alexis said that she was given the opportunity to add to the role beyond the requirements of the role and move the character away from the 'hot girl' archetype. I have to say I didn't really spot this when she had her boobs out or when she was letting Thomas do body shots off her. There was also a serious problem in that Thomas takes ecstasy willingly and there are little repercussions to his actions other than him not having sex with the girl he wanted to I found this to be particularly dangerous for any younger kids watching. The acting is atrocious sometimes using non-actors works, see this year's Chronicle, however here the unprofessional nature of the majority of the cast shines through and adds to what is already a dire film. Though I didn't find all of it utterly offensive for the majority of the film I sat stony-faced and I have to say if this is the best that the found footage genre can muster then maybe the footage shouldn't have been found in the first place.

Verdict: Unfunny, offensive to women, badly produced and atrociously acted by its non-professional cast Project X is a horrific viewing experience so it becomes the co-worst film of the year with a mark of just 1/10