Costa has put a sign up that only naked women may swim in the pool and the gals comply without a qualm. Disgruntled neighbors are complaining about the racket. Hundreds of guests are coming and going by the hour. Before Thomas realizes it, his guests overrun the house, clog the streets with their vehicles, and start shedding clothes. The party turns into an anarchic extravaganza. Nevertheless, Nourizadeh and company paint our heroes as sympathetic but naive. Everything that can go wrong does go wrong. Scenarists Matt Drake and Michael Bacall rely on Murphy's Law in their clever screenplay. Naturally, he forbids Thomas from using certain rooms. Imagine his surprise when between 1,500 and 2,000 people show up to celebrate his birthday and trash the premises! Ironically, Thomas' bespectacled dad (Peter Mackenzie of "One Hour Photo"), shares the sentiments of most who classify Thomas as a "loser." He knows his son will invite friends over while his wife and he are away for the weekend so he forks over $40 in cash to buy pizzas. Furthermore, he doesn't want them inside his house. Initially, Thomas wants no more than fifty people at his party. He sends text messages, e-mail blasts, and publishes the event on Craigslist. Of course, Costa sees Thomas's birthday as nothing more than an excuse to invite scores of sexy gals in tight clothes for a night out. Thomas' best friend Costa wants to throw him a party. (Jonathan Daniel Brown), have a dream that degenerates into a nightmare. Three high school students, Thomas (Thomas Mann), Costa (Oliver Cooper), and J.B. "Can't Hardly Wait" meets "Porkys" best encapsulates "Project X." "Project X" represents a definite hurdle for future house party movies to scale and a chilling cautionary tale to parents who entrust their property to their children while they are away. Prepare yourself for displays of lewd, crude, rude behavior wrapped up in general air of unreality. An anonymous but charismatic cast and the spontaneity with which events whirl out of control makes "Project X" a gripping, white-knuckled roller-coaster of a comedy. After he escapes, the dwarf embarks on a genital punching bender. For example, a gang of drunken kids stuff a pugnacious dwarf into a kitchen oven.
"Project X" delivers laugh-out-loud hilarity during its best moments, while some of its shenanigans amount to amusing contrivances. Nevertheless, the property damage is staggering. This R-rated, teensploitation tale about a high school student's birthday party that escalates out of control is prudish compared with the "Hangover" movies. Incidentally, "Hangover" director Todd Phillips, who produced this mammoth 88-minute mock-documentary, didn't helm it. Take the teen comedy "Can't Hardly Wait" (1998) about an unruly house party, add a "Lethal Weapon IV" lunatic with a flame thrower, shoot it like "The Blair Witch Project," and you've got freshman director Nima Nourizadeh's outlandish opus "Project X" about a party-gone-wild. PROJECT X should have been called PROJECT DISASTER. Even the characters here are so annoying that you just want to punch them. American PIE, PORKY'S, FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH and countless others did the same type of stuff but they delivered a story with real characters. The entire film just has a creepy feel to it especially when we're supposed to be entertained by teenagers getting drunk and taking drugs. Are we supposed to believe that all 1500+ people would be dumb enough to take every drug handed to them? Are we supposed to believe they'd tear down an entire neighborhood? This film tries to present itself as being "real" but it comes off as pure fiction and seems like some bad fantasy from someone's mind who never went to an actual party. Are we really supposed to believe that these three losers go from being picked on to a few hours later every hot chick in their school wants them sexually? If it was this easy every loser would be throwing a party. I'm really not sure where to start with this thing but I guess we'll begin with the stupidity.
I'm guessing the writers and directors thought they could just show a wild party and it would be entertaining but they were incredibly wrong but perhaps they wanted to make a purely awful movie and if that was their goal then they succeeded. PROJECT X not only manages to be one of the very worst of the found footage films but it also manages to be one of the worst comedies in a very long time. I love R-rated movies that cross the line of bad taste if they're funny. These losers manage to invite 1500+ people and of course chaos follows. Project X (2012) 1/2 (out of 4) This film is presented in a "found footage" type of way as three losers from high school throw an epic party with their fourth friend taking all of it.