"Initially I had hoped that this would be a film that makes me wish I was 17 again, but instead it makes me absolutely thrilled that I'm not..."

I tried having a house party once. Managed to get six friends round, four bowls of cheese and onion crisps, two packets of cigarettes, and a bottle of whisky. You may call that a bit feeble, but I'm willing to bet it would have made a better film that Nima Nourizadeh has managed with Project X.

Thomas (Thomas Mann), Costa (Oliver Cooper) and JB (Jonathan Daniel Brown) are desperately unpopular at school, and when Thomas' parents go away on the weekend of his 17th birthday, the trio decide to host a house party - leaving the crude and offensive Costa to arrange the invitations.

Costa is so convinced no-one will show, he spreads the word via local radio stations and social networking sites in the hope that it will attract a broad audience, and of course, lots of attractive girls. Yet a few too many people turn up for the party, and with over a thousand people in Thomas's parents’ house causing mayhem in the local neighbourhood, he has to make sure the police aren't involved, manage the upkeep of his home, and do so whilst trying to win the love of his old friend Kirby (Kirby Bliss Blanton). However, Thomas must weigh up whether such factors are worth jeopardising the "greatest party of all time."

Three ostracised high school pupils attempting to be popular via a party was done only a few years ago with Superbad - and Project X couldn't be more similar to the hit-comedy, whilst being as far away as possible in terms of quality. Yet one of the key differences between Superbad and Project X, is that you want the protagonists in Superbad to come out on top. You are rooting for their desperate attempt at popularity, whereas in Project X, all three are annoying and you really wish that no-one turns up to their party at all. Costa is the most annoying of the three, he's the token indecent, sex-obsessed character, or 'The Stifler' as it's become affectionately known. But despite such a character deliberately being an idiot you are still supposed to like them. Not Costa. I hated Costa. I wanted to kick Costa in the shins.

The biggest annoyance with Project X however, is the found-footage element, where the entire film is supposedly created on a variety of different videos shot during the night from different sources. Despite a clear attempt at making the film unique, it merely seeks in devaluing the feature completely, simply providing further ammunition to the critical and somewhat cynical audience. Or me, in other words. 

Such criticisms could have been avoided if Nourizadeh had shot the feature normally, however, he didn't  - so here are some of the more obvious faults. Firstly, you can't film underwater with a camera phone. Secondly, you can't film musical montages with unedited hand-held equipment. And finally, who filmed the parents’ reaction the next morning when everyone from the party had gone home? Y'see, you try and be clever and it comes back to haunt you.

Also, if you do attempt making a film from a found-footage angle, you are effectively making out the footage is real, so therefore need to stick to the authenticity you are portraying, yet this deviates away from realism incredibly. I mean there are tons of naked girls walking around the place. This is either stupidly unrealistic, or I have just been going to the wrong parties. Yet given how over-the-top the film is, the ending and particularly the parents’ reaction to what has occurred is oddly understated.

In fairness there are a couple of relatively funny moments whilst the party is in full swing, mostly involving either a dog or a midget, or both. The midget in the oven being the stand-out highlight from the picture. Another positive is that the party takes up the majority of the film, as the filmmakers have disregarded a prominent build-up or aftermath, focusing mainly on just the party. This works well as the tedious and prolonged setting of the scene always feel too unnecessary in features such as this.

Also, and I know I sound like an old fogey, but the film actually highlights quite an intriguing scenario - how social networking can be the cause of such a grand mess, such as the now infamous 'Facebook Party' in Hamburg, Germany. Perhaps this is an element to the film that should have been delved into further?

Alas, Project X is entirely predictable, and exactly what I had feared would happen after the success of Superbad. Initially I had hoped that this would be a film that makes me wish I was 17 again, but instead it makes me absolutely thrilled that I'm not.