One of the great debates to have engulfed cinema ever since the motion picture signaled a game-changing technological breakthrough is whether it’s worse to be a mediocre movie that runs for a very long time, or a bad one that’s over and done with in relatively quick and painless fashion.
While the recent filmography of Michael Bay may test your resolve when it comes to the former, we present to you Project X as a case for the latter. A raucous high school party comedy that turned out to be a major smash hit at the box office when it earned $102 million on a $12 million budget back in early 2012, Project X only runs for 87 minutes from the first frame to the last.
However, those 87 minutes are packed with jokes that aren’t funny, characters who aren’t likable, and the broad strokes of the alcohol-fueled teenage rebellion subgenre you’ve seen a thousand times before, and done better on 999 of those occasions.
And yet, even though we’re eleven days away from Christmas, Netflix subscribers have found themselves captivated by Project X, at least if the most-watched list is to be believed. As per FlixPatrol, the movie has jumped 69 places since yesterday to take up residency in the Top 20, a hugely ironic number when you consider that’s about the level of complex humor on display.