REVIEWS

"SHE'S ALL THAT"

A little over a month ago, I was watching "The Babysitters Club" on TV (look, I was really bored, okay?), and I saw that one of the girls looked really familiar to me. After a little bit of research, I discovered that the familiar little girl was in my all-time favorite anti-drug PSA (public service announcement). It's an update on the "this is your brain on drugs" PSA from the 80s. In the updated version, she smashes an egg with a frying pan after saying "this is what happens to your brain after doing heroin," and she holds up the frying pan with the smashed egg dripping all over her hands and says "...and this is what your body goes through." Then she coldly says, "It's not over yet." So she proceeds to use the frying pan to destroy the kitchen, screaming things like "This is what your FAMILY goes through!" ("SMASH!") "And your FRIENDS!" ("SMASH!") "And your MONEY!" ("SMASH!") "And your JOB!" ("SMASH!") She goes on for a bit, throws the frying pan aside with a loud "CLANG," looks daringly into the camera and says, "Any questions?" Pretty cool.

ANYway... I went to another advanced screening last night. This one was for "She's All That." The movie stars Freddie Prinze, Jr. (the guy who played Jennifer Love Hewitt's boyfriend in the lame "I Know What You Did Last Summer") and the girl in the PSA with the frying pan whose name is Rachael Leigh Cook. They were both excellent. They had a chemistry that was wonderful and every moment that they were onscreen together was just great. But despite the charisma of the two leads, clever moments, and great performances by supporting characters, the movie wasn't "all that" (sorry).

I'm really sick of movies set in high school that use stereotypes/archetypes instead of giving their characters a true personality. And why do all movie high schools seem to be NOTHING like my high school? Probably the movie's biggest flaw was that Cook's character starts off as supposedly unattractive and really geeky. The thing is, it doesn't work. She looks gorgeous, as a matter of fact, this supposedly geeky and unattractive girl is probably the best looking one in the whole school! Then again, I may be a bit biased. Intelligence, weirdness, and glasses are a big turn-on for me.

"She's All That" was an update (rip-off?) of "My Fair Lady"/"Pygmalian," and if you remember the movie "Can't Buy Me Love," there was some of that in this movie as well. It was written by Lee Fleming, a first time writer. There were lotsa clever things in this movie, so I think he has the potential to write great stuff, but this movie is FAR from great. It was directed by Robert Iscove who is mostly a TV guy. He directed the recent "Cinderella" TV movie with Brandy. With "She's All That," he did good with material that wasn't so good.

There were some interesting people in this movie. Anna Paquin was good as the little sister to Freddie Prinze, Jr., but her role was brief. That annoying loud guy from "Scream" played an annoying loud guy here, Tim Matheson had a small role (and his character seemed to be a cliché at first, but it was handled well), Elden Ratliff and Kieran Culkin (who were together in last year's excellent "The Mighty") reteamed, Clea DuVall pretty much played the same character she played in "The Faculty," Usher Raymond (who was ALSO in "The Faculty"... and had just as much screen time here) made an appearance, and the hilarious Kevin Pollack played a very subdued role where he quietly stole every scene he was in. Oh, and there's a very interesting cameo that you may miss if you blink.

The movie wasn't very good, and I even groaned during some parts, but the two leads were just too great to hate this movie. Also, there were some really good moments. Rachael Leigh Cook has established herself as a major new name in Hollywood, and Freddie Prinze, Jr. proved that he really can act. I dunno, this movie wasn't really good, but you've GOT to see these two onscreen together.

Scale of 1-10: 6