MINI-REVIEW: That Awkward Moment

MOVIE
That Awkward Moment

CAST
Zac Efron, Miles Teller,
Michael B. Jordan

RATING
R

RELEASE
January 31, 2014

DIRECTOR
Tom Gormican

STUDIO
Focus Features

RUNNING TIME
1 hour 34 minutes







STARS
**1/2









REVIEW:

Romantic comedies usually follow a typical formula that seems to get people into seats almost every time.  First, we cast the attractive male and female actors.  Following that up, we have a predictable story about how man and woman meet at a bar and hook up, only to have some horrible situation bring them apart, and then they get back together in the end.  And to end off the three-way recipe of every generic rom-com, we have the fact that the jokes are either really tasteless, really stupid, or mildly entertaining.  In the case of "That Awkward Moment," the concept, being that this romantic tale is told solely from the perspective of the men, is different, but the execution of all of the plot points were still the same as they have been in any other movie your girlfriend dragged you to see.  Having said that, the actors are charming enough and the jokes hit hard enough where the film is good enough to recommend.

My main problem with the film is that we're supposed to care for these characters, more specifically Zac Efron's character, when in the end he's an unlikable womanizer who doesn't really have much redeeming about him.  I mean, he was fine in the film itself, but his character was written as too much of an unlikable person that it was hard for me to care for him all the way through.  Miles Teller and Michael B. Jordan are in the same ballpark, but you can understand why they're acting the way they are, plus they pull off their parts extremely well.  Zac Efron's "girlfriend" in the film, played by Imogen Poots, is also fine in the movie, but her American accent needs some serious working on, because I could honestly hear her actual accent screaming "please let us out!"  All in all, the cast was fine, but the characters weren't written as well as they could have been.

For a movie that's called "That Awkward Moment," there's not much that's actually considered to be "awkward."  Sure, there's a scene where Zac Efron's character wears a dildo to a classy party, but other than that, there's nothing much that anyone even considers to be awkward.  Hell, I don't even think the word was mentioned more than twice in the movie!  That's really just a nitpick, though, because overall the film is good, but nothing special.  The directing is passable, the screenplay lacks in proper development of certain storylines and characters, and the film as a whole is nothing really memorable.  It's a fine rental at best, but other than that, this is a decent attempt to make a romantic comedy for men, but it could have been so much better given the potential it had to begin with.  Overall, there's nothing awkward about "That Awkward Moment," but there are some laughs to be had, and some fine performances from its cast despite a lacking script and directing that's nothing forgettable.




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