Rating of
2/4
A Bit Shallow But Bearable
Franz Patrick - wrote on 05/23/08
The title is kind of misleading because the overall message that I got was one CAN buy love. But maybe that's just me. I have this love-hate relationship with 80's flicks because most of them are about popularity and somehow the character(s) will manage to evolve into a deeper thinking person in a span of about a year (with usually involves a prom scene). But the thing is, this is one of the better ones solely because of Patrick Dempsey. It's so weird seeing him so young, skinny, and nerdy because he's considered nowadays as a "hunk." Even though the main character is charismatic in a dorky way, he is extremely flawed which makes him seem more real. But I'm afraid there were more than a handful of scenes where such flaws made him somewhat unlikeable and even annoying. Dempsey could have controlled that a little bit and made things more stubtle. I also liked Amanda Peterson as the popular girl who instantly changed fifteen minutes into the film and provided the voice of reason, per se. I thought that was a nice touch because I haven't seen a teenage female 80's film character who changed for the better during the first few scenes. Usually such changes happen during the last thirty minutes. As for the story, it's as shallow as a puddle so it's not exactly my forte. I prefer my high school teen comedies awkward yet insightful like "Juno," "Charlie Bartlett," "Election," "Rushmore," and "Rocket Science." I guess it could have been a lot worse (and boring!) like "American Graffiti" so I'm glad with the way it turned out. But if one wants an excellent 80's teen film, I'd go with "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."
