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John Tucker Must Die
Movie Stats & Links

Starring: Brittany Snow, Jesse Metcalfe, Sophia Bush, Ashanti, Arielle Kebbel
MPAA Rated: PG-13
Released By: 20th Century Fox
Web Site: myspace.com/johntucker
Kiddie Movie: It's for the teens, and me.
Date Movie: Only if you're in high school.
Gratuitous Sex: Skimpy outfits and talk.
Gratuitous Violence: Just some volleyballs to various faces.
Action: Nah.
Laughs: In the high school genre of laughs.
Memorable Scene: Nothing paticular.
Memorable Quote: "You can't really hum a Cheap Trick song."
Directed By: Betty Thomas
Produced By: Michael Birnbaum, Bob Cooper

John Tucker Must Die
A Movie Review

MPAA Rated - PG-13

It's 1:27 Long

A Review by
The Dude on the Right
I was torn this morning as I was deciding whether to see the Woody Allen movie, "Scoop," with Scarlett Johansson, or catch the teen girl movie "John Tucker Must Die." Not being a Woody Allen fan, I opted for the teen girl flick. I’ll have to wait until I see "Scoop" to really see if I made the right choice, but I’m always up for a fun, teen movie, and "John Tucker Must Die" wasn’t all that bad, even if the story isn’t really new.

The movie opens with the narration of Kate (Brittany Snow). She frustrated because her mom, Lori (Jenny McCarthy), can’t find a good man, and when things go bad, well, she moves from town to town seemingly in search of that good man. This has led Kate to be mostly a loner in her life, unable to establish any friendships, and Kate kind of likes it this way. Being on the outside looking in, she can see the kind of pig John Tucker is, and after some cat-fighting during gym class, she becomes involved with three girls from different cliques within the school, whom John Tucker has been cheating on. We have Heather (Ashanti), the cheerleader. We have Beth (Sophia Bush), the hippie-chick. And we have Carrie (Arielle Kebbel), the smart girl who is also good-looking.

Now as smart as our quartet seems to be, John Tucker (Jesse Metcalfe) really seems to be the mastermind at this school. The girls try to turn John into an emotional wreck, which of course backfires. The girls try to make him a poster-boy for herpes, which of course backfires. And the girls, well, I think you get the point – pretty much everything the girls do to try to destroy John Tucker doesn’t work. And so when the simple things don’t seem to work, they come up with the idea of breaking his heart and that is where Kate comes in. The girls will train Kate in how to get John to really fall for her, and when the time is right, she will crush his heart. The only problem is that, or course, Kate is really a nice girl, then she starts to fall for John, then she is conflicted because John still needs to learn a lesson, and then, as it the case with most high school movies where the outsider becomes an insider, everyone has to learn a lesson. Cake gets thrown, and all is well in the high school world.

The movie could have gone down a dark road had it really been about killing John Tucker, but really our quartet just wants him to be a social pariah. The thing our girls don’t seem to understand is that when, if ever, is the captain of your champion basketball team ever going to be a social pariah? But that doesn’t matter, because what the girls do accomplish in their quest is kind of funny, and just as funny is how John turns his various embarrassments into accomplishments.

The movie does have its moments, though nothing really surprising for the teen, high school genre, but I’ll give some credit to all of the lead girls, and Jesse Metcalfe, for playing their roles pretty decently. Lessons are learned at Forest Hills High, which of course are never learned at any other high school in the United States.

"John Tucker Must Die" really doesn’t break new ground and is geared for the teen girl crowd, but I liked it anyway. As dark as the title sounds, our girls are pretty tame when it comes to crushing a man. Either that, or John Tucker will be President some day because he can take any situation and make it his benefit. It’s 3 stars out of 5 for "John Tucker Must Die."

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

 

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