This movie was one of the glut of teen "comedies" that came out in the late '90s/early '00s, spurred on by the success of American Pie and its ilk. Generally, these movies weren't any good. It made me sad to be a high schooler during that period of time. Why couldn't I have grown up with Say Anything... ten years earlier, or Grease twenty years earlier? Not that they were great works of film-making, but at least they were enjoyable. But I digress.
Although I'm not a huge fan of the genre in general, I reserve a special disdain for She's All That for the following reasons:
1. It's a bad rip-off of the Pygmalion story. Now, while it's fine to do updates on classic literature, and indeed, the Pygmalion story would be a good one to update, it's not fine to dumb it down. This felt like the "reaching for the lowest common denominator" version of My Fair Lady, except with a much worse soundtrack. The humor level went from "C'mon Dover, move yer bloomin' arse!" to "What did he just put on that pizza??"
2. It's a celebration of conformity. It's not so much the physical makeover that gets to me (even though I talk about that a bit more below); it's the accompanying change of personality. When Laney becomes her "cooler" self (gag, gag, gag!!), she loses pretty much all of the quirky qualities of her personality that made her interesting in the beginning of the movie. She pretty much became just like everyone else, which was saddening. At least in the original Pygmalion story, Eliza became a stronger person after her transformation; Laney just becomes a gooey-eyed bimbo.
3. Speaking of eyes, this movie perpetuates a bias against people who wear glasses, saying that they're automatically nerdy and unattractive and must get contacts STAT! if they want any hope of being cool and good-looking. (Sorry, just a personal pet peeve of mine; it just gets on my nerves, especially because I know people who think this way in real life.)
4. C'mon, this transformation was too easy. As a lot of other reviewers have pointed out, Laney was already pretty. All they did was slap on some quirky clothing and glasses (see point #3), and she was automatically in need of a makeover to make her hot. Right. You know, sometimes the people that really stand out are the ones considered the most beautiful. But that seems to be lost on anyone here, who think that you have to look just like everyone else to be attractive. They could have picked a better "project" or "case" to make over.
Anyway, these are my thoughts. I'm not even going to touch on the awful acting and the fact that high school was never remotely like it was portrayed in this movie (a high school radio station??). I just have problems with this movie at the foundational level.
As a final thought, may I just submit for your consideration that the title is a phrase so dated that, a mere 7 years later, no one really uses it anymore? Clearly, there was something very short-sighted in the making of this movie.
Although I'm not a huge fan of the genre in general, I reserve a special disdain for She's All That for the following reasons:
1. It's a bad rip-off of the Pygmalion story. Now, while it's fine to do updates on classic literature, and indeed, the Pygmalion story would be a good one to update, it's not fine to dumb it down. This felt like the "reaching for the lowest common denominator" version of My Fair Lady, except with a much worse soundtrack. The humor level went from "C'mon Dover, move yer bloomin' arse!" to "What did he just put on that pizza??"
2. It's a celebration of conformity. It's not so much the physical makeover that gets to me (even though I talk about that a bit more below); it's the accompanying change of personality. When Laney becomes her "cooler" self (gag, gag, gag!!), she loses pretty much all of the quirky qualities of her personality that made her interesting in the beginning of the movie. She pretty much became just like everyone else, which was saddening. At least in the original Pygmalion story, Eliza became a stronger person after her transformation; Laney just becomes a gooey-eyed bimbo.
3. Speaking of eyes, this movie perpetuates a bias against people who wear glasses, saying that they're automatically nerdy and unattractive and must get contacts STAT! if they want any hope of being cool and good-looking. (Sorry, just a personal pet peeve of mine; it just gets on my nerves, especially because I know people who think this way in real life.)
4. C'mon, this transformation was too easy. As a lot of other reviewers have pointed out, Laney was already pretty. All they did was slap on some quirky clothing and glasses (see point #3), and she was automatically in need of a makeover to make her hot. Right. You know, sometimes the people that really stand out are the ones considered the most beautiful. But that seems to be lost on anyone here, who think that you have to look just like everyone else to be attractive. They could have picked a better "project" or "case" to make over.
Anyway, these are my thoughts. I'm not even going to touch on the awful acting and the fact that high school was never remotely like it was portrayed in this movie (a high school radio station??). I just have problems with this movie at the foundational level.
As a final thought, may I just submit for your consideration that the title is a phrase so dated that, a mere 7 years later, no one really uses it anymore? Clearly, there was something very short-sighted in the making of this movie.