She's All That

King of high school Zach Siler (Freddie Prinze Jr.) is unceremoniously dumped by hot queen Taylor Vaughan (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) for an idiot realty TV star (Matthew Lillard). While bragging about his prowess, he's challenged by his douche friend Dean Sampson (Paul Walker) to remake class freak Laney Boggs (Rachael Leigh Cook) into a prom queen.

It's sort of like a modern adaptation of Pygmalion. This and other teen movies are prime to be mocked. RLC is a hot girl, and of course we only realize it after she takes her glasses off. But every genre has it's own clichés and it's own stereotypes. It doesn't negate the genre. This is a prime example of a movie taking all the clichés and making it all work for them.

The most important part is definitely RLC. She does the grumpy girl and the sweet girl. And she does both by being the cutest ever. There are also some great young actors of that era including Anna Paquin, Dulé Hill, and Gabrielle Union. The cast is a young energetic group.

I thought this one was cheesy, now iv watched the new one I feel this deserves a higher review! The prime example of something that shouldnt of been remade!

Silly but fun teen romantic comedy about a high school jock (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) who bets his friend (Paul Walker) that he can turn a geek (Rachael Leigh Cook) into the prom queen. Flimsy updating of Pygmalion is hard to hate. It doesn't take itself seriously in the least. Yeah it's absolutely ridiculous that Rachael Leigh Cook, an exceptionally pretty girl, would be considered unattractive just because she wears glasses and overalls. But you just roll with it because it's cute and fun. The cast is very likable and the script is good for this type of movie. Matthew Lillard steals pretty much every scene he's in. It's fluff but you'll be smiling when it's over. Can't see the harm in that.

Call me a cornball if you must. But this film's got the magic! Lots of little touches like the hacky sack and brief parody of modern dance. And the best song--'Kiss Me'--that's ever appeared in a romantic flick. Catch the official video with Sixpence on Youtube that features Freddie and Rachel on Youtube too.

When high school jock Zak is dumped by his prom-queen style girlfriend, he rashly says that he doesn't need her and that any girl he dates will become the prom queen. A friend takes her up on the bet and picks geeky art student Laney. Zak tries to get close with limited success but gradually he begins to get to know her and they become friends – now all he has to do is get her accepted by the jet set.

How many teen movies do we need, with their similar themes of jocks and geeks and the seemingly revolving casts? Here we get yet another retelling of Pygmalion except here it doesn't really convince as a comedy or a story. The plot isn't particularly imaginative and feels lifeless and a little flat as a result like it has no spark of it's own. The other problem is the fact that Laney is actually quite good looking before `the change' – I prefer her look before Zak supposedly made her better.

The film needs to pander to the teen audience so we get the obligatory `gross out' comedy in a few scenes which are funny but outside of that it's really very light melodrama between Zak, Laney and the jocks/cheerleaders.

Prince is annoying but is actually alright here despite having a cardboard jock character. Cook is good as Laney but it's a shame that the film sees some sort of victory of making this geeky arty girl into a beautiful Valley girl type that conforms to the pack. What message does that send out to teenagers? At one point Zak says that he'd rather work with fat or ugly than Laney – but really she is only acceptable because she is pretty and not fat or ugly. The rest of the cast are a range of teen actors who you'll recognise from other films who do nothing out of the ordinary. Usher has a cool cameo – but why did Lil' Kim take a role that was barely a support character? I hate Matthew Lillard with a passion but here he does a good job sending up those reality TV `celebrities' and is very funny in his handful of scenes.

Overall this is an acceptable teen film but really never gets to the point where you could call it more than good. The story lacks spark or imagination and the comedy is either crude or too slight to be funny. It's watchable but it's not all that.