She's All That
Rated PG-13
1 Hour 38 Min
Miramax Films
Zack....Freddie Prinze, Jr.
Laney....Rachel Leigh Cook
Taylor....Jodi Lyn O'Keefe
Brock....Matt Lillard
Let me begin this review by stating how much I like this new teen comedy genre. It's a refreshing change from watching teens
either run from a killer or aliens or some other various terror. It's unfortunate that the teen comedy genre is starting
to churn out movies more terrifying than some of the teen horror flicks that these stars are fresh from.
Take "She's All That"(please!), an amazingly bland picture that is limply written and weakly directed by TV director Rob Iscove.
The pic starts positively by introducing it's young stars and the plot and it even has an interestingly done and creative beach party flashback. Class president Zach(Freddie Prinze, Jr., reminding me
of Keanu Reeves in his "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" stage) has just been dumped by his valley girl girlfriend, Taylor(
Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, in a one-note diva-esque performance) and, of course, his friends are "like, whoa dude, that's a bummer." Then,
co-jock Dean and Zack place a bet that Zack can't turn the class wallflower, Laney(Rachel Leigh Cook, in a performance that doesn't liven her blandly written character) into a prom queen in 6 weeks.
Of course, like any Hollywood film, the frumpy wallflower is already attractive. Rachel Leigh Cook, who looks sort of Winona Ryder-ish,
would probably be considered attractive by the standards of many men. Of course, Zack instantly sets out to woo the girl, who's suspicious
of his sudden attraction, much like she seems suspicious of nearly everyone and everything else. The two meet up again at a performance
art show where she brings Prinze's character up on stage where he proceeds to completely embarass himself as he improvs his own little bit of performance art, which apparently, his character
found to be a "high". The scene is unintentionally hilarious in the extreme. Of course, Zack finds Laney's world increasingly interesting, and predictably, he begins to fall for her. The two
of them are awkward together, with Prinze and Cook having little or no chemistry together in their scenes.
"She's All That" would be at least watchable if it had any energy whatsoever. Besides the fact that it brings nothing new to the genre,
it doesn't even present its recycled material with any spark or life. I like the actors themselves, but they add nothing to their already
one-dimensional characters.Even the fight between Laney and Taylor to win the title of prom queen towards the end of the film isn't interesting. The film can't even make the fight between the two girls from different backgrounds for the title of prom queen very interesting to watch.
This is all the more horrifying coming from Miramax Films, a studio who I admire greatly. Harvey Weinstein, who runs Miramax Films, is
a brilliant marketer of film, but if this signifies his new taste in film, that's unfortunate. Miramax has done some of my favorites of
recent years(Rounders, Clerks, Chasing Amy, Pulp Fiction, on and on). Apparently, Harvey has caught on to the fact that teen films can
be made with little or no budget and make tons of dough. I think if you bring this same formula to the table over and over again, eventually
it'll fall down(see the teen horror genre).This film alone just about sets the genre back about a decade. Even Sarah Michelle Gellar has a cameo that lasts about a second, with an amusing "what did I just step into?" look on her face.
There is a funny film inside a film in "She's All That", though. Zack's girlfriend Taylor leaves him for Brock("Scream"'s Matt Lillard), a member
of MTV's "The Real World" and an obvious parody of that show's Puck character. Some of these "Real World" scenes are hilarious and a parody
of that show, if done right, could be something hilarious. Back to the film at hand, though, it's unfortunate that the film is not only unoriginal,
it's predictable. Of course, Laney is transformed into...well...she looks the same. She's still cute. No more, no less. She just takes her
glasses off and puts on a dress. Not too impressive at all, and it's this scene that's crucial to the rest of the film working. I just didn't buy it. It doesn't help that the two of them barely have any conversations that last more than a few minutes and the dialogue
they do have is simply uninteresting and uneventful. It all feels incredibly tedious and the occasional funny or interesting remark seems like it was
done by accident.
I certainly like this genre of teens interacting with each other rather than running from a killer or aliens, but please, give the characters something interesting to say.
It seems as if the writers of all of these films never went to high school, or are so far removed from high school that their ideas come directly
from some stereotypical view of today's teens. Either way, the film feels painfully unrealistic. But, actually, that's a very small portion of this film's
problems. If you want to see an example of this genre that I enjoyed, rent last year's "Can't Hardly Wait", by no means a flawless film itself, but
it's a much more fun, sweet and energetic picture than this one.
