"Haven't you watched this before?" the boy asked, when he came into the living room and saw me watching Drew Barrymore in Never Been Kissed. I bet you'd be thinking the same thing - it's a very old film and it's almost unthinkable that Barrymore would look so nerdy, now that we've seen her all foxed-up in the Charlie's Angels movies.
So, no - I hadn't seen it until a couple of nights ago when it screened on the telly (because now is the time that the programmers schedule repeats of old shows, right?). I'd heard that it wasn't a bad movie. But actually, some of the movie is bad.
In case you haven't seen it either, Barrymore plays a 25-year-old newspaper reporter whose undercover assignment is to infiltrate a local high school and bring forth juicy teen gossip articles. Having had a truly hellish time at high school the first time around, our heroine is initially confident that the second time around will be much, much sweeter. Only it isn't because going back to high school would be like going back home. It doesn't matter how much you've changed, you'll revert back to your old self once you're there. Then her ever-popular brother joins in, pretends to be her cool teenage ex-boyfriend and wham! Barrymore's nerd is suddently hot stuff. She's one of the "popular" girls, rejected by the geeky (i.e. intellectual) friend, going to the prom with a studly 16-year-old (hmm...) and headed for an almost-inappropriate relationship with her tasty teacher (double-hmmm).
It's light and all, so I wasn't expecting it to be thought-provoking or life-changing. But still. I just have issues with the ending. The girl accidentally outs herself and her teacher is totally disgusted, which is quite understandable. Then the girl writes an article in the paper which resembles one of those confessionals you see in the trashiest of women's magazines, inviting the hurt teacher to meet her on a heavily-populated baseball field for a kiss.
As if, I thought to myself. If I were a teacher who's found myself falling for an underaged student, only to find out the student was under cover and under orders to find a scandal, the last thing I'd want to do is go kiss her in front of a huge crowd (not to mention tv cameras).
But he does.
And that just ruined the whole experience for me.
5 comments:
I wasted money going to the movies to see that.
Actually, I think even Ray wasted money taking me to see it. But it was a really bad day, and I think he said something like he was going to fill me up with doughnuts and watch mindless rom/com. So it kind of fit the bill.
I liked that movie, but just a little. It definately is not thought provoking. I would never go back to high school EVER!
I am here via your profile which says you are a Buffy fan, in case you were curious.
donnasoowho: yep, totally mind candy!
gmcountrymaa: I sure am a Buffy fan. Unfortunately I don't post much about the show any more, seeing as I only get to see reruns now. Perhaps I'll post about the Season 8 comics, but first I'll have to reread them...
interestingly, i had a bunch of promotional items for when i saw a movie screening of this. one of the items was a tube of lip gloss called 'never been kissed'. i kept it until about last year when i threw out anything that hadn't been touched and i was keeping for pack rat purposes. i was planning to sell this item on ebay in case it became famous, but alas, nobody would've bought it.
no milk: but if you could get Drew Barrymore to use it on her lips first, you'd have got a nice price :-)
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