By AMBER FURST
“Simply Irresistible” and “She’s All That” are two predictable movies about young love in the 1990s.
Being predictable is not necessarily bad, considering the appeal of classic predictable movies like “Some Kind of Wonderful”, “16 Candles” or “Pretty in Pink”. Unfortunately, these two newer movies are not as entertaining as those older films.
“Simply Irresistible” is Sarah Michelle Gellar’s first starring role. She plays Amanda, a terrible chef about to lose her job and all hope until she meets and falls for, Tom, played by Sean Patrick Flannery.
This meeting is supposedly so magical that Amanda becomes an amazing chef. Not only that, but whoever eats her creations feels the way she felt when she cooked it.
If this sounds familiar it is because this is a knock-off of the book and film, “Like Water For Chocolate”. However this film lacks the charm and any type of emotion the book and film had.
Any type of interaction between the two lovers seems forced and unnatural. I was amazed that Gellar could not muster up any type of chemistry with her dashing co-star.
The movie does not go into anything deep enough to get the audience to care. I did not care that Amanda’s powers are never explained or that there is a random magic crab that lives in her kitchen.
The best part of the movie involves Amanda’s friend Nolan, played by Larry Gilliard Jr. He is the comic relief of the film and is like a breath of fresh air whenever he appears. He is the only semi-realistic, funny thing about the film.
“She’s All That” involves the senior class of a Los Angeles high school and is a notch above “Simply Irresistible” on the entertainment level. It involves the classic story of the popular boy making a bet to see if he can turn a nerdy girl into the prom queen.
Freddie Prince Jr. stars as Zach, the student body president with the goal to make the artsy Laney, Rachael Leigh Cook, into Miss Popularity. These characters have more chemistry than Amanda and Tom; however, the story does not develop enough to make them classic teen-lovers.
“She’s All That” does not try to hide the fact that this is a predictable, cliche high school film. There are the unbelievable, mean popular kids, the big party where everyone gets drunk and the choreographed dance scene at the prom.
Zach and Laney are pretty to watch, which made me wonder: Why did they choose an obviously beautiful girl to play Laney and not try to make her more of a nerd? I was hoping for a better make-over scene that would involve more than taking off her glasses.
At first I thought maybe I was too old for the humor in the film, considering I am a full 3 years older than the characters, but I recently saw “Can’t Hardly Wait” and enjoyed that high school film. So I came to the conclusion that this film was just not that funny.
