10 Things I Hate About You

I got to see a longer trailer for Inspector Gadget at this one. I know it looks really cheesy, but I really want to see it. I loved the show as a kid (which, yes, I still am at heart no matter what the law says), so I have to see the movie. Plus Matthew Broderick is awesome in these kinds of roles. And this time he gets to play a bad version of himself. Cool!

I also saw a trailer for Big Daddy, the new Adam Sandler flick. As long as he isn’t playing total idiots his movies are funny. Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer were great. Billy Madison was weak and The Waterboy was, well, it sucked. No getting around that. I laughed maybe three times and the jokes involved bad special effects. This one looks good, though. He has fun at the expense of a child, so that’s always cool. A little W.C. Fields action there.

Now the real movie:

We all know that I like teen flicks. I just have a soft spot in my heart for them. Ever since seeing The Breakfast Club for the first time (only a couple of years ago), I’ve been into them. I try to see all of them that I can, even if I know they’ll be bad. That’s why I knew I had to see this one. A teen flick based on Shakespeare. What could be better?

10 Things I Hate About You is based on The Taming Of The Shrew. I’ve never read the play (for shame!) and I’ve never seen the Liz Taylor movie, but I’ve seen a Moonlighting episode based on it, so I have a loose grasp of the plot. (Er. Um.)

What happens is this (can you tell I still think like a teenager? I definitely write like one. Yech!):

Bianca Stratford (Larisa Oleynik from “3rd Rock From The Sun”…but wait! She’s not the only one!) is the most popular girl in school. Every guy wants her, but none can have her. Her dad has a rule about dating: it doesn’t happen. Enter her sister, Katarina (Julia Stiles from Wicked–a little indie flick where she plays a psycho little girl–good Hitchcock homage). She’s, well, difficult. No one likes her and she doesn’t like anyone else. She has a smart-ass line for everything and is generally pretty evil. (I liked her from the start.) After a while, Kat and Bianca’s dad (Larry Miller–the nice clothing store clerk in Pretty Woman, the boss on Dilbert, the dean in The Nutty Professor and lot’s of other cool supporting roles) amends the rule: Bianca can date when Kat dates. Fat chance.

Then there’s Cameron James (Joseph Gordon-Levitt from “3rd Rock”…see, I told you). He’s the new kid who has to hang out with one of the biggest geeks in the school. He falls for Bianca on his first day and gets the idea to make Kat date. His forced friend, Michael (David Krumholtz–Slums Of Beverly Hills, Addams Family Values and The Ice Storm), tries to help, but gets them in more trouble as they go along.

First they try to get Joey (Andrew Keegan–Camp Nowhere, Skateboard Kid II…in other words, nothing–well, he was “Older Boy” in ID4, does that count?) to find someone to find for Kat. Joey is the most popular guy in school and he wants Bianca for himself. Of course, Bianca wants him, too. Cameron is just hoping for the best, but since she doesn’t even know his name (even though he’s tutoring her in French…a subject he knows nothing about) things don’t look too good.

Joey finds the criminal of the school, Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger from Roar…remember that tv show? Neither do I.) to take Kat out. He pays him all this money just so he can get at Bianca. Will it work? Will Cameron get her first? Will Kat fall in love? These answers and more are already written in your brain.

We all know how it will turn out, but I guess getting there is half the fun, right? Yeah. It is. this is a pretty good movie. Along with the more obvious jokes (a guidance counselor named Ms. Perky who writes romance novels as her main career, a nearly abusive English teacher played by Daryl “Chill” Mitchell who is trying to teach Shakespeare–get it?) there are some really good ones. Such as David Leisure’s career. Actually he does have a pretty funny cameo that involves a bag of pot, Cheetoes and Kat’s “plans.” Then there’s the fact that a lot of the names and places are taken out of the play and Shakespeare’s life. (Stratford, Verona, Padua (the name of the school and the town the play took place in)) It’s always good to see Larry Miller, too. He’s great at playing dads, teachers, principals and such.

The problem here was that Larry was the only parent. Ok, maybe it’s not a problem, but it’s a little weird. These kids don’t just stay in one place like the kids in The Breakfast Club. They go home at night. They go to parties. No mention of parents. Patrick, I think, says something about his dad, but it’s in such a joking manner that you really start to wonder if he exists.

The other thing, and I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but I really liked Kat better than Bianca. I thought Bianca was totally empty. She was a lot like Alisa Silverstone’s character in Clueless…but not as smart. Cute, but nothing but air. Even at the end. Kat, on the other hand, had a real personality. She wasn’t a bad girl, but she had the reputation. I liked her. She was the kind of girl that I would have been friends with in high school. Probably nothing more because she would have scared me, but friends. Plus, between her, Michael and Larry there were no more good lines to go around. They got just about all of them. That’s ok, though. That’s where they belonged.

All of the other characters were pretty good. We didn’t really get to know Cameron too well. He just kind of drifted whenever he was needed. Michael was pretty funny. Patrick was cool, but I think he betrayed himself by the end. He started out as pure criminal, but when he met her he suddenly became “the good guy.” A little too quick, I think. (Apparently he had a nice smile, though. The two girls sitting behind me wouldn’t shut up about it.) And I could never figure out, until near the end when the refer to it, if he was supposed to have his accent or not. It seems to come and go even though it’s really Heath’s accent. Joey was a jerk. Maybe a little too much of one, but that’s how high school was.

Also, is it just me, or is just about everyone in this movie too old for high school. The girls and Joseph G-L were the only ones who looked young enough. The rest of the cast was about 5 years too old looking.

All in all, a good flick. Good for a matinee. Good to get kids interested in Shakespeare (maybe). By the way, don’t leave until the credits are finished. The best part is the outtakes. David Krumholtz steals them. This kid has a future somewhere. I’m not sure where, but somewhere.