‘Do Over’: Film Review

A bro-centric rom-com with surprising faith in its logic-defying premise, Ryan Francis’s Do Over (not to be confused with Adam Sandler’s new film) sends a trio of 30-ish dudes off to find the women they lost their virginities to in hopes of getting it right the second time around. Unfunny even when its redlining energy level suggests it thinks it’s hilarious, this is a debut feature that seems very unlikely to earn the director his own second chance.

In the first of many barside conversations here, the lone woman in a quartet of friends declares that her bros are deluding themselves when they recount the magically romantic occasions on which they were deflowered. Everybody knows the first time sucks for the girl, she says, and somehow this impugnment of their adolescent prowess inspires a group mission: Each will track down the woman in question and try to seduce her all over again, hopefully lasting more than 60 seconds in the sack this time.

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Nearly everything about the dates that follow screams either contrivance or wish-fulfillment, which, given the movie’s title, is probably appropriate, however unamusing. One character learns that the cherry-popping story he has told for 13 years is a misremembered lie, then goes so crazy trying to figure out when he actually lost his virginity you’d think his very heterosexuality was being questioned. Another man, spying on his first partner before he approaches her, sees her sending a teenage son off to school. If you can’t guess where that storyline is heading, Do Over might be just your speed.

Distributor: Freestyle Media
Production company: Do A Do Over
Cast: Drew Seeley, Jonathan Bennett, Amy Paffrath, Zack Lively, Gina Field, Hayley Marie Norman, Sarah Karges
Director: Ryan Francis
Screenwriters: Kevin J. Foxe, Ryan Francis
Producers: Gina Field, Kevin J. Foxe, Ryan Francis
Executive producer: Brandon Edwards
Director of photography: Dustin Supencheck
Production designer: Patrick Phelps
Costume designer: Esther J. Han

Not rated, 98 minutes