I can usually find -something- to enjoy in nearly every movie in the "high schooler hijinks" genre and its "nerd pursues and gets the popular girl" sub-genre, but not even a brief flash of almost- nudity on Hayden Panettiere's part made this movie remotely worth the price of admission or the time I spent watching it.
Putting Alan Ruck in your high school movie and having him reference other great high school movies does not add credibility points to it. It just makes me want to go home to watch those great high school movies to get the taste of this one out of my mouth. Laughs were few and far between (mostly spoiled in the trailer and commercials), and far outnumbered by awkward and just plain uncomfortable-to-watch moments. There was a pointless filler scene that in my opinion was meant to evoke Wayne's World, and another scene had a horribly obvious dialogue edit that was clearly made just to bump the movie down from R to PG-13. It also sends some horrible messages to young, impressionable viewers-- I sound like my parents here, but I'm not kidding. Don't be surprised if you hear about some kids getting killed doing something they saw in this movie.
Verdict: This movie couldn't decide if it wanted to be raunchy or sweet, and tried to alternate between the two every so often. Judd Apatow seems to be the only guy in Hollywood these days who has the touch to pull that move off, because the people responsible for this train wreck certainly didn't.
Wait for unrated DVD rental, or cable.
Putting Alan Ruck in your high school movie and having him reference other great high school movies does not add credibility points to it. It just makes me want to go home to watch those great high school movies to get the taste of this one out of my mouth. Laughs were few and far between (mostly spoiled in the trailer and commercials), and far outnumbered by awkward and just plain uncomfortable-to-watch moments. There was a pointless filler scene that in my opinion was meant to evoke Wayne's World, and another scene had a horribly obvious dialogue edit that was clearly made just to bump the movie down from R to PG-13. It also sends some horrible messages to young, impressionable viewers-- I sound like my parents here, but I'm not kidding. Don't be surprised if you hear about some kids getting killed doing something they saw in this movie.
Verdict: This movie couldn't decide if it wanted to be raunchy or sweet, and tried to alternate between the two every so often. Judd Apatow seems to be the only guy in Hollywood these days who has the touch to pull that move off, because the people responsible for this train wreck certainly didn't.
Wait for unrated DVD rental, or cable.