Fifty Pills Movie Review

If the movies are any judge, I did not have nearly as much fun in college as I was supposed to. In Fifty Pills, young Darren (Lou Taylor Pucci, a kind of cross between Colin Hanks and DJ Qualls) finds himself on probation on the second day of school! By Christmas he's lost his scholarship, all because he and his jerk roommate Coleman (John Hensley) like to have a little party.

Dad's lost his job, too, and both his parents think he's gay (thanks to what turns out to be the movie's funniest single moment), so Darren scrambles back to the dorms to figure out how to raise another $1000 so he can stay in school. (Naturally, he's also in love with another resident named Gracie (Kristen Bell), but he can't profess him affections to her.)

The plan: Sell 50 hits of ecstasy that Coleman has lying around. Problem solved.

Naturally it's not so easy. Not only does Darren have to deal with crazed ecstasy buyers (like a dominatrix or like Eddie Kaye Thomas, who will never get out of these movies, ever) and the guys who the drugs belong to (Michael Peña appears in every one of these ensemble "crazy day" films), he also has to deal with the disapproval of Gracie, who finds drug dealing, like, gross and stuff.

Whew!

Darren's 24 hours to earn the cash are surprisingly entertaining, and if Pucci had leading-man chops this would be enough to make the picture worth watching. Unfortunately Pucci doesn't even look old enough to be in high school, much less college (though he's 21), nor does he really get across the conflicted nature of his role. On the plus side, every five minutes brings a new distraction in a drug-seeking page that Darren receives, sending him scampering off to encounter another absurd yet often admittedly amusing scenario. Though it makes for a film told in commercial-length bursts, it works as often as not. I don't hesitate to admit that I did at least one spit take during my screening of the film, though your mileage may vary depending on your pateince for only slightly more mature frat-house humor.

Aka 50 Pills.