| Overall Grade: |
D+ |
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| Story: |
D+ |
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| Acting: |
C- |
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| Direction: |
F |
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| Visuals: |
C- |
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When a Comedy's Wittiest Joke Is Its Title
by M.E.H (movies profile)
Apr 18, 2007
43
of
73 people found this review helpful
If you drink a shot for every overused teen movie cliche you see in "John Tucker Must Die," you should be plastered within a half an hour. Granted, I'm not in the "tween" demographic at which this movie is aimed, but I'm not all that far off from that range, either (I'm 19, for those of you who are wondering.)
"John Tucker" starts out with its namesake dating three girls at the same time. He is able to get away with this because the girls are all in different cliques (and won't talk to each other) and because they're all idiots. Then they find out that they're all supposedly dating the same guy and subsequently decide to get revenge by ruining his social life. Then they realize that since John is the most popular boy in school, even spreading the word about him supposedly having herpes makes him more popular. So they enlist the help of the "ugly" duckling wallflower (who has a thing for "the other Tucker") to make John Tucker fall in love with her so that she can dump him. Predictably, the ugly duckling wallflower likes getting the attention and starts having feelings for the guy she's supposed to be getting revenge on. What happens next is pretty much predictable, as well, so I shouldn't need to spell it out here. There's also a plotline straight out of that Heather Locklear mess known as "The Perfect Man" that only marginally relates to the main plot.
The characters are flat, so there's not much that the actors can do about it. The three ex-girlfriends are slutty and annoying. Jesse Metcalfe's idea of acting in this is taking off his shirt and wearing a thong (ew!) The only interesting character is the ugly duckling's mother, a Jenny McCarthy we don't see enough of in this movie.
The direction could have been better. The actors don't come across as knowing what the hell they're doing when they're onscreen. What comedy there supposedly is has been excised by way of delivery and sequencing. The studio should have hired the same editors for the movie trailer as they had for the product itself and maybe a better director, while they're at it.
"John Tucker Must Die" is something made purely for the MySpace crowd that could possibly find humor in the inane and the purely stupid. Go if you must, but it hasn't got the wit of "Mean Girls" nor the outrageousness of the "American Pie" trilogy. If you must see this movie, at least spend someone else's money on the ticket. |
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