Never Been Kissed

I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. It was charming, funny, and, at times painful. I, however think it was painful to watch because I had such a hard time at high school, and I could relate to this movie.

It reminded me of "Mean Girls" a lot, although this had a softer edge to it.

It was a bit predictable, but, sometimes a good, sweet, romance with a happy ending is what you want in a movie.

The acting was good, and the story was believable-if a bit far-fetched.

The sound track was awesome!

I was a freshman in high school when this movie came out and I LOVED it. Maybe it was because I had a huge crush on my English teacher and this was my way of fantasizing a hot teacher falling for one of his students. My 15 year old self didn't understand how unethical that would have been (not to mention illegal), I just thought it was soooo romantic. Fast forward 20 years to rewatching it with my husband and it was a completely different experience. The premise is still cute and the sad parts are still sad, but I couldn't get past how creepy that teacher was. All she did was read poetry and give smart answers in his class and he was smitten. While my young self got excited every time he gave her gooey eyes, my adult self was shocked that a teacher would act act so inappropriately. If he had been in on the secret, it would have been okay I guess. But all of that with his girlfriend and him getting jealous when she was with other teenagers (also unethical because she was interested in an underaged boy at one point) was just too much for me. I could barely watch it. It could have been a cute movie if it had been written a little bit differently, but wow.

The nice thing about Drew Barrymore - or, to paraphrase the late Douglas Adams, ONE of the nice things for there are several - is that she's willing to try almost anything from "Guncrazy" to "Ever After" (although I suspect she would draw the line at "Bad Girls 2"). In this appealing though predictable teen flick, she's an eager writer for a newspaper given a chance to prove she can do more by going undercover to see what today's teens are up to in high school, and finds that nothing's really changed.

Drew is as engaging as ever whether appearing in class way too overdressed or dancing on stage while on drugs (relax, the film's overall pretty inoffensive), and it may have been prophetic that her joke about having been named Josie after the leader of a cartoon rock band goes over the head of her best friend at school (the film version of "Josie and the Pussycats" was a box office flop in America). The movie isn't exactly surprising, and won't appeal to anyone who insists on teen films having acid in their veins - but then again, the edgier "Jawbreaker" wasn't just bad-spirited, it was BAD, period. Call me soppy, but I like a happy ending, and this does have one (even The Prettiest Girls In School don't turn out to be that horrid in the end).

If only the Seekers' "Free To Be You And Me" (which Drew and her friends sing along to in a car in one scene) and some of David Newman's sweet score had been on the soundtrack album, but that's not a problem exclusive to this film; what with this and "Charlie's Angels" (not to mention "Olive, the Other Reindeer") Barrymore's record as a producer is a lot better than, say, Michelle Pfeiffer's. And as I said in the summary, you get Drew Barrymore and Jessica Alba in the same movie (this is a Twentieth Century Fox movie in more ways than one).

Never Been Kissed is not a perfect movie, but I wasn't expecting that. The story is predictable yet simple and the ending is hokey, but I still liked the film. Why did I? Firstly, Drew Barrymore. There may be people who don't like her, I do and I have since seeing her in Ever After(and that was a wonderful film). Here she does what she does best, which is cute and funny romance, the result is that we are treated to a fun and captivating performance. Secondly, David Arquette is a lot of fun as Barrymore's slightly odd older brother, and I also enjoyed Leelee Sobieski's minor turn here. Michael Vartan is charming in his own way as well. The script does have its humorous moments, the film does have a nice feel-good element to it, the direction is fine and the soundtrack is nice. Overall, an enjoyable movie, not a masterpiece, but just a nice bit of fluff. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Josie Gellar (Drew Barrymore) is a Chicago Sun Times copy editor. She's a stiff perfectionist, and not aggressive enough to be a reporter. That is until the owner arbitrarily assigns Josie as an undercover high school student. Only she was a loser nerd in her high school years, and she returns as a loser nerd in her new undercover work. With the help of her younger drop-out brother Rob Geller (David Arquette), she gets a makeover and infiltrates the popular group.

She is scary nerdy and humiliating. It's really not funny unless we are supposed to laugh at her. Luckily for the movie, Drew Barrymore is impossibly lovable. She makes us love her no matter what, and makes this sad pathetic character somewhat watchable.