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64%
Overall Rating
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Ranked #496
...out of 20,698 movies
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Popular, pretty Bianca Stratford is in dilemma. A family rule forbids her from dating until her unpopular, rebellious, boy-hating older sister Kat gets a suitor of her own. In an attempt to win Bianca, a potential boyfriend desperately attempts to set Kat up with Patrick Verona, another rebel who may just be able to win Kat's heart.
--IMDb
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Review by Tristan
Added: January 23, 2008
January 22, 2008. I'm at a friend's house enjoying a few beers and watching Rocky Balboa. Everything is in order for a fun filled evening, then I get the news. Heath Ledger has died at 28 years old. This affects me on two levels. The first being he is a young, talented actor who had a long career ahead of him. The other being the childish side of me, he was the Joker. Pessimistic at first, I eventually succumbed to the idea, and when trailers and pictures were later released, I was convinced that Ledger would pull off a fantastic Joker, only furthering his blossoming career. While I do not agree with any form of drug use, I can't help but feel broken up over this young actor's death, and it is in this saddened state that I review one of his oldest and best movies.
Cameron James (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is the newest kid at Padua High School. As most of us know, it's difficult to find your way around a new school, as well as make any sort of human contact as there are the various cliques which one hopes to eventually meld into without causing too much of a disturbance. Fortunately for Cameron, he is assigned Michael (David Krumholtz), an audio/video nerd who helps him find his classes, meet people, and also learn which people to avoid. One of said people is Bianca Stratford, who has caught Cameron's eye for a number of reasons. She's attractive, popular, kind, and is unfortunately also the younger sister of Katarina (Julia Stiles), the school's anti-socialite. To further Cameron's disappointment, it's a well known fact that Bianca is unable to date unless her sister does, which Mr. Stratford (Larry Miller) thinks will be an exceptionally long period of time.
Luckily Michael has come up with a fool-proof plan to get Cameron and Bianca together before the big school dance. They turn to Joey, the school's self-proclaimed stud/model/douchebag and tell him that all he has to do is get someone to take out Katarina, allowing him to take out Bianca. He falls for it, and gets Patrick (Heath Ledger), the school's badass, to attempt to get a date with the school's ice queen, for a nominal fee of course. For the 5 or 6 people out there who haven't actually seen this movie, things get pretty hairy when the plan starts to go awry, and many of the characters find themselves in love triangles, leading to some very funny, as well as some heartbreaking scenes.
This is probably my biggest guilty pleasure. I've always been a sucker for "chick-flicks" and this is no exception. While there's no breakout performances here, everyone does their part to make this a great movie that is enjoyable for any viewer. I may be in a biased mood due to Mr. Ledger's recent death, but I absolutely adore this movie. The writers definitely had a grasp on high school life, and the drama involved in liking a person you don't have a chance of getting. It's a little ridiculous of course, but not so ridiculous it's not believable. Only being a few years out of high school myself, I know of a few situations which weren't too far away from this particular story. You can't help but fall in love with all of these characters as they progress through the story.
This was one of those movies that recognized the obvious talents of several young actors, and grouped them together to try and make a hit movie. Heath Ledger, David Krumholtz, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and even Julia Stiles benefited from this little number. Aside from Julia Stiles not doing much more than a few of those teen fluff films and a Bourne movie or two, the rest of these actors made it pretty big. It's always a treat to go back and look at someone's earlier pictures especially if they were exceptionally good, which is the case here. Fuck American Pie and all those other gross-out comedies, this is what teen movies were all about.
I'm not sure how I feel about recommending this one. On the one hand, I love it and would 100% recommend it to everyone, and on the other hand I realize that this kind of movie doesn't really fly with most people, especially not on a site which is primarily horror driven. However, since I'm such a non-conformist, I'm going to recommend it anyway, and hopefully someone out there can enjoy a little piece of what Heath Ledger had to offer the world before he kicked the can, as it were. He will be greatly missed by yours truly, and I can only hope that his final performance - The Dark Knight - will be one which sticks with audiences for years to come.
9/10.
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#1:
Nirrad
- added January 23, 2008 at 9:45pm
There's not doubt in my mind that his performance
will be less than excellent.
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#2:
bluemeanie
- added January 23, 2008 at 11:39pm
OK -- so I thought Heath Ledger was a good actor.
But, I am not going to be one of those idiots who
all of a sudden says everything he did was golden
just because he died. He made some bad films.
This was one of them. This has a couple of
moments but was pretty much just another terrible
teen comedy trying for more than it could ever
accomplish. Heath Ledger was not bad in this, but
it was a bad film. But he's not amazing either.
4/10.
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#3:
Edd
- added January 24, 2008 at 11:08am
I agree entirely with Billy. This isn't like when
John Lennon was shot or anything, just a run of
the mill above average actor dying. Also, this
film was only funny when the father was saying
something. So, 5/10
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#4:
hellothere
- added January 24, 2008 at 7:58pm
Definitely 10/10. I love this movie, it has been
one of my favorites for a long time. I always end
up watching it whenever it's on tv. It's so
addicting.
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#5:
grain of sand
- added January 24, 2008 at 8:05pm
Most all these actors and actresses annoy me, I'd
rather spend my time watching 'Can't Hardly
Wait'
2/10
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#6:
Nirrad
- added January 24, 2008 at 9:41pm
Can't Hardly Wait was great. I watched it again
over the summer. I like that movie.
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