Der Zufrühkommer

Premature is a 2014 film directed by Dan Beers, with great performance by Alan Tudyk as supporting actor and with Katie Findlay, a young, charismatic Canadian actress that I've see previously in the movie The Philosophers, 2014, sharing starring roles with John Karna. The Welsh and talented Craig Roberts also appears in a supporting role. The movie is very acceptable, it is a much better movie, in my humble opinion than The Breakfast Club or Karate Kid if we want to talk about coming of age movies, It is not La vie d'Adele obviously because this a comedy, but an entertaining one. The premise of the movie, unfortunately, is an absolute copy cat of the enormous classic "Groundhog Day". A day that repeats itself mysteriously, for a virgin teenager in this case who is struggling to have his life back to normal and trying in the process to lose his virginity. Recommendable

All I see are these reviews comparing the movie to others that are really cornerstone films and its annoying because you aren't gonna watch this movie because you are genuinely looking for an interesting or captivating plot. If you want to laugh and enjoy a raunchy and in my opinion pretty funny movie then give it a try. It's predictable but watchable and I am glad I gave it a watch.

I didn't have high expectations for this movie so maybe that's why I found it to be somewhat decent and amusing. It was definitely a step back for Katie Findlay and Craig Roberts after seeing them play some outstanding roles such as Maggie Landers on The Carrie Diaries and Oliver Tate in Submarine, but it was also nice to see some new faces making their way into the movie industry, especially the lead, John Karna. The plot for the movie is very odd but that's what probably makes it work. It's something different and unheard of. All in all, it had it's good moments and its bad but it was a fun enough watch for a Saturday night.

I have to admit that this movie at times made me chuckle. John Karna is not a stunner but he's definitely funny in a stoic way, the dialogues were spicy and the script provided some really funny situations and characters. But the story was pretty shaky, it stayed for instance totally vague what caused the continually recurring day (in spite of some reference to a curse in the end, which came rather out of the blue and didn't really make sense), as did the way it worked (orgasms did the Groundhog trick, but strangely also a kick in the groin?!), and the way it came to an end (yet another orgasm, so what was so different?!).

To be honest: a movie that is entirely based on a teenagers ejaculations seems a bit like the rock bottom of tackiness. Poignantly illustrated by seeing John Karma multiple times lying on his bed with a big wet blotch on the front of his shorts. So I'm slightly embarrassed that in spite of that I still was entertained. Humbly I plead guilty.

This film is pretty typical of the High School comedy. Some cheap gags centered around toilet humour or sex, a cast of reasonably 1 (or if you're lucky 2) dimensional characters and a heartwarming albeit totally predictable conclusion after 90 minutes.

I'm not quite sure why several other reviewers are commenting on Katie Findlay's performance. It hit the top of the bell curve. For those not statistically inclined that means it was average, neither good nor bad but smack on the Mean. The film's lead actor, John Karna, was chosen for the ability to pull a realistic 'cum' face reliably. Considering that was his primary expression for the majority of the movie he was a good choice, his acting ability otherwise. So so. The only consistently funny performance was provided by Craig Roberts who is actually endowed with the ability to act. I've seen him in a couple of other pictures and think this kid has a long acting career ahead of him.

The film is essentially a rip off of 'Groundhog Day' which is of course a better film. For 'Premature' to really succeed it could have lowered it's own bar and fully embraced the toilet humour motif. Other films have done this and been hilarious, Premature got caught up in the emotions too much. If it had followed Groundhog's course more similarly and become an example of total plagiarism then the film would have been better although never released. The other option was to embrace the whole 'curse' idea, which was introduced toward the end of the film, and work some gags out of that. However 'Premature' opted for a watered down combination of all three leaving the viewer somewhat unsatisfied.

If you go into this not expecting much (because not much is all you'll get) then you won't be disappointed.

4.5/10 rounded up to 5