This is a plot everyone has heard before: A down-on-his-luck dad whose wife and kids hate him is given a chance to relieve his glorious teens and become 17 Again — hey, that’s the title of the movie — to try to fix mistakes he’s made in his life and … well, actually, that’s about it.

I wish I could tell you there was more to the plot than that, but then I’d be an irresponsible reviewer. Sure there are some of parts of this movie that get laughs, but if you were to write 100 jokes or gags for a Hollywood feature, one would be bound to instigate at least a chuckle.

Once we get past the part that this recycled idea was probably green-lit at a morning meeting at the coffee percolator by the powers that be, we can be a bit more open-minded. I mean, the idea seemed foolproof.

The movie opens in 1989 with Mike O’Donnell (Zac Efron), a star high-school basketball player complete with shaggy hair, playing basketball shirtless in his school gym. Mike’s coach tells him that scouts will be at the game that night and to play his best.

Now, let’s stop here. I’m assuming Efron wants to shake his High School Musical image. Not that playing a teenager is going to help that, but playing a star high-school basketball player is just taking another step back.

But instead of Efron leaving it there, he engages in a choreographed dance number with the cheerleaders. Zac, honestly, you are not going to escape your typecast this way.

Leaving personal matters aside, we are then shown that Mike is best friends with the school water boy, who has an unhealthy obsession with Star Wars and Lord Of The Rings and is obviously the smaller kid that the whole team picks on — except Mike.

Now comes the big game, and we find out Mike is dating the most beautiful girl in school, Scarlet. To make Mike’s night easier in front of the scouts, his girlfriend breaks up with him before the game.

So, we’ve established so far that we have Mike O’Donnell, whose girlfriend just broke up with him before a big game, and he has to get her back. Sadly for Mike, a song-and-dance number will not fix this situation in this movie. Ultimately, Mike chooses to save his relationship and give up the big game.

Fast-forward 18 years and we now have Matthew Perry, bearing no resemblance to Efron, playing Mike. Mike is a father and husband who has just been passed over for a long-overdue promotion. He’s in the middle of a divorce with his wife, Scarlet, whom he gave up everything to be with, and his kids not only do not like him but don’t seem to have any respect for him either.

So to keep it moving, Bill Murray’s brother, Brian Doyle-Murray, shows up randomly as a janitor, who asks Mike if he wishes he could be young again and change things. Mike then falls off a bridge into a river of spinning water and is magically 17 Again — hey, there’s the title again.

So, what better way to keep the movie going than to have Efron go back to high school, knowing what he knows now, and try to help his son, Alex, and daughter, Maggie, and win back his wife’s hand.

If you are thinking that hijinks ensue, well, you’re halfway there.

The movie has been done before. There is not much more you can add to a movie like this, short of updating the jokes to reflect the time period. For example, Mike’s getting beat up filmed by a student with his cell phone who sends it to everyone in school within a matter of minutes.

While some of the humor is a bit lowbrow, the movie does have some hilarious albeit unintentionally funny characters.

For me, the biggest laugh came when Mike’s daughter’s boyfriend, Stan, grabs a handful of condoms from a basket that is being handed out and mutters in the most primitive voice, “I have needs.” I just remember clinging to my chest and laughing. The only thing I’ll never know is if I’m alone in finding this funny because I literally was alone in the theater with my girlfriend.

Otherwise, the movie has a few laughs here and there, and of course I’m sure teen girls love to see Zac Efron, especially shirtless, but I have higher standards.

Efron did a good job playing himself again, and I will give him props for one emotional scene he did have toward the end of the film.

But the best character was played by Thomas Lennon, who played Mike’s water-boy friend, Ned, as an adult. Lennon did a great job channeling an awkward man-child and definitely drew the most laughs for me out of the movie.

This is the kind of movie that will appeal to teenage girls and younger people alike, but I was overall disappointed. Hollywood is just beating a dead horse at this point with their mindless retools of ideas already done. Let’s see something new already.