Project X, then, also turned out to be one of the films that pretty much any studio wished it had released. Made, we’re told, for not much more than $10m, the film went on to be a solid hit, creeping over $100m at the worldwide box office, and all-but-guaranteeing a sequel. That’s before the cash from the disc release and such like get factored in. Project X, though, is a really hard film to like. At times, a desperately hard film to like. It’s basically the story of three high school kids, and it just happens to be the birthday of one of them. That’d be Thomas, who simply wants to have a “cool” birthday party while his parents are out of town. In the hands of his friend, Costa, things spiral wildly out of control, and the ensuing party? Well, we’re not going to spoil it for you, but it’s hardly on the small and quiet side. My second problem is, for want of a better way of putting it, the moral of the story. It’s a film that lacks, after all, particularly  likeable characters, with each of them doing things that hardly warrant sympathy (in terms of how they treat other characters) across the film’s running time. Thus, the ending is a bit of a sour-tasting headscratcher. It’ll be hard to find a more morally ambiguous film all year, I’d wager. The film itself has a real commitment to its central premise, throwing everything it can in to make the party itself as memorable and over-the-top as possible. And, to the film makers’ credit, there’s a real sense of a low budget being stretched here, particularly as Project X hits its last 20 minutes. That’s what just about stretches the film to a second star. Just. Project X will, pretty much without doubt, be a big hit on disc. It barely deserves to be, though.