17 again

The movie is about a former high school basketball star gets a second shot at life when he's miraculously transformed into a teenager and offered the opportunity to redefine his future. Back in 1989, Mike O' Donnell (Matthew Perry) had it all; not only was the seventeen year old senior the king of the basketball court, but college scouts were circling as well. But just as Mike's future began to glow brighter than ever before, he sacrificed everything in order to stay by his expectant girlfriend Scarlett and be a good father. Nearly twenty years later Mike has just been passed over for a big promotion at work, his marriage is failing, and his teenage kids can't stand him. His dreams long gone and his family falling apart, Mike takes to staying with his best friend Ned (Thomas Lennon), a former high school geek turned techno billionaire. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Mike is transported back into his teenage body and given the given the unique opportunity to relive his salad days. But while Mike may look seventeen again, his thirty-something outlook at life puts him hopelessly at odds with the class of 2009. When Mike discovers that by attempting to recapture his best years he could risk losing all the best things he ever experienced in life, the time comes to make a decision that could have a drastic impact on both his past, and his future.

~review from ask.com
Remember the late '80s? Back when there was a glut of movies about middle-aged people suddenly becoming young again? A simpler time when Vice Versa, Like Father, Like Son, and 18 Again! all played in theaters? Well the main character in Burr Steers' 17 Again sure does, and he really wants to go back to it.

The main character, 37-year-old Mike O'Donnell (Matthew Perry) is having an incredibly bad day. After learning he's been passed over for promotion, and listening to his wife, Scarlet (Leslie Mann), say that he needs to just sign their divorce papers already, he tries to lift his spirits by visiting the high school where he was a basketball star 20 years before. During a conversation with a mysterious janitor (Brian Doyle-Murray), Mike confesses that he'd like to be 17 again and have a do-over on the last two decades of his life. Later that night, Mike falls off a bridge and magically turns into his younger self. The newly teen Mike (Zac Efron) promptly enrolls in his old school, where he joins the basketball team, befriends his teenage son (Sterling Knight), mollifies his broken-hearted daughter (Michelle Trachtenberg), and does everything he can to win back his wife's long-evaporated love.

While that setup may sound sturdy enough, director Burr Steers and screenwriter Jason Filardi fumble the execution -- they never appear to have asked themselves who this movie was for. Will adults go see a movie about a guy having a midlife crisis if it's set in high school? Will tween girls (the demographic that most wants to see Zac Efron in anything) be ready for a plotline about a girl who gets dumped because she won't have sex? The jokes are too stupid for adults, and the material is too mature for kids.

That leaves teenage ticket buyers as the prime market. But when Young Mike lectures health class about abstaining from sex, or subtly seduces his own wife (she thinks he's her husband's nephew), a typical teen will either laugh at, or be grossed out by, his actions. It's too edgy for the folks who made Adam Sandler's Click a giant hit, and too soft for teens used to Judd Apatow's R-rated comedies. So, 17 Again never figures out what it wants to be, and ends up a jumbled mess that nobody wants.