Never Been Kissed
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Movie Reviews of Never Been Kissed
Movie Review: Purchased Never Been Kissed.
Summary: 4 Stars
I totally love this movie, definitely worth watching. Check it out!Movie Review: The Reason She's Never Been Kissed
Summary: 3 Stars
I love Drew Barrymore, but there is a reason that she has Never Been Kissed, and it is because of her horrible acting. The Executive Producer should have fired her on the spot, but wait a minute. She WAS the executive producer. That explains a lot. This is the first film in Drew's producer resume, and her acting is OK in parts, but she only partially redeems herself, because when she is bad, she is very bad.
She is playing a copy editor at Chicago Sun Times who has been given a chance to be a reporter. Her assignment: go back to High School posing as a student and dig up a scandal. Her return to High School triggers all kinds of painful flash backs, because she was a major geek. They all called her Josie Grossie. As an uptight copy editor, always correcting everyone's grammar, she is OK. When she goes back to High School, she is really bad. The script was not her BFF, either:
Guy Perkins: Hi, I'm Guy.
Josie Geller: Yes, you are a guy. Quite a guy. Oh my. Hey, that rhymes! Yikes. Bikes!
Guy Perkins: Are you in special-ed? I mean, are you?
Kristin Davis: A Geek?
Gibby Zerefski: You totally just said that out load.
David Arquette plays her brother. He was popular in High School, where he was a talented baseball player, but since he never made it to the Big Leagues, his High School years were the highlight of his life, and it was downhill fast from there. He goes back for another shot, and also to help her infiltrate the cool kids. Once Josie gets to drop the geek act, then she does much better. But still, that is not enough to save this movie from the terrible story. It just doesn't work, and it doesn't allow her to really get back at the guy who asked her to the prom only to drive by in the limo and egg her. That, or something similar, would have made the catharsis complete.
You'd think that after so many movies have been done in this whole High School genre, what works and what don't work would be obvious. Yet, the writers decided unwisely to reinvent the wheel, and that is why this vehicle never goes anywhere. They didn't plan to fail, they just failed to plan.
On the bright side, Molly Shannon as Anita, and John C. Reilly as Gus, were both funny, as usual. Shannon especially. Sean Whalen shows the makings of a good character actor, as Merkin, Josie's assistant. Leelee Sobieski as Aldys, a girl from the outcast math club, The Denominators, who befriends Josie early on, is someone to watch for. A couple of small parts were played by actors who went on to bigger and better things, so don't miss James Franco and Jessica Alba.
At the prom there are slow dances to "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" (Written by Johnny Marr and Steven Patrick Morrissey and performed by The Smiths) and "Don't Worry Baby" (Written by Brian Wilson and Roger Christian and performed by The Beach Boys). "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" was also in the prom scene in Pretty in Pink.
Bottom line, Never Been Kissed is a weak addition to the High School movie genre, but nevertheless you still might enjoy it if you like Drew Barrymore enough to put up with her less than stellar performance.
10 Movies That Are WAY Better Than Never Been Kissed (1999)
Heathers - 20th High School Reunion Edition (1988)
Mean Girls (Special Collector's Edition) (2004)
Pretty in Pink (1986)
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Sixteen Candles (1984)
10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997)
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)
Down to You (2000)
She's All That (1999)
Josie Geller: Somebody once said, "To write well, you have to write what you know." Well, here is what I know...
Movie Review: Cute & Sweet, But Not Very Interesting.
Summary: 3 Stars
How would high school be different if you were given the opportunity to go back and relive those times, but with all the wisdom, knowledge, and experience you have acquired since then? Would you do things differently or would you end up doing similar things that you did the first time around? I'm not really sure what I would do, but if I was given the opportunity to relive the high school years I don't know if I would even take it. However, that idea forms the foundation for the movie NEVER BEEN KISSED.
Josie Geller (Drew Barrymore) is an intelligent, beautiful, and hardworking woman who works at the Chicago Sun-Times. At twenty-five, she's also the youngest copy editor on staff. Josie likes her job, but what she really wants to do is be a reporter. She finally gets her opportunity when the owner of the paper gives her an assignment of going undercover as a high school student to find out what it's like to be a high school student in today's society. I mean, everybody forgets high school after they graduate so nobody has any idea what its like (ha, ha, ha). So, Josie enrolls and finds herself doing the exact same things she did when she was originally in school. Apparently people used to call her Josie "Grossie" back then and she still hasn't developed enough self-esteem to overcome those feelings of inadequacy. Josie finds herself developing an attraction to a handsome hunk of a teacher, Sam Coulson (Michael Vartan), but she can't do anything about her feelings without blowing her cover and getting Mr. Coulson in trouble. Of course, since Josie's job is also on the line because unless she starts hanging out where all the "dirt" is, aka the cheerleaders, preps, and jocks, she's going to get fired. Oh, and to top it all off, Josie has never been kissed.
As a member of one of the only truly royal acting families in the U.S., Drew Barrymore has made quite a career for herself and has acting in around sixty different movies. Barrymore is one of those people who could do anything she wants and that's just what she did. She started a production company to develop original scripts written outside the system and the first project she chose to develop was NEVER BEEN KISSED. Perhaps Drew hasn't been getting many job offers or was just bored, but whatever the case she also cast herself in the lead role. Let's see USC is the top film school in the country, not much outside influence going to be happening there. The first movie chosen to develop is a romantic comedy. But get this, the lead is going to star Drew Barrymore as a woman who has never been kissed! How unbelievable can you get!
I like Drew Barrymore. I really do. I first had a crush on her when I was a kid and saw her in E.T. But, Drew Barrymore as a girl who has never been kissed is as unrealistic and unbelievable as the moon being made of cheese.
Of course, that's one of the more realistic things about this movie. The teacher that Josie likes makes advances at her. That has lawsuit written all over it. Everyone pretends its okay after Josie's true identity is real, but it's not okay. It's slightly deranged, immoral, and illegal. But then again the high school Josie attends is more of a college than a high school.
Most of the acting in the film is dry and uninspiring. Barrymore is cute as usual, but cute doesn't carry a film unless you're a child actor. The only performance of any note is that of David Arquette who plays Josie's older brother, Robert, who was a popular kid in high school and never could let go of those moments that were the best of his life.
Overall, NEVER BEEN KISSED is a formula romantic comedy that falls on its face. It's barely worth watching if you're a fan of Barrymore's. Other than that, pre-teen and teenage girls will probably adore it.
Movie Review: Formulaic
Summary: 3 Stars
While I love Drew Barrymore in "Ever After," the entire plot of "Never Been Kissed" was rather stereotypical and unrealistic.
For most people, high school represents the days of glory, youth and first love, but for Barrymore's character, Josie, it was one disaster after another. She was a social misfit to the umpteenth degree.
So, years later, she's a journalist and is assigned a story that invovles her enrolling in high school (pretending to be 17 years old) in order to infiltrate the "in" crowd and get scoops.
In retrospect, the idea of a romantic comedy on this basis already has some obvious issues, but when Josie's older brother enrolls in the same high school ALSO pretending to be a teenager, things just get weird.
Up until this point, Josie has had trouble befriending the popular girls (and is taken in by other social misfits), but the brother comes, becomes popular and tells everyone that he and Josie used to date (obviously, they don't tell anyone they're siblings!)
Besides the uber stereotypical silly popular girls who wouldn't be popular in real life (think the ditzy girls from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" the movie), some moral and LEGAL problems arise here.
Josie, who is at least 24 in the movie, begins dating a high school boy who, hopefully, is 18 years old. We never see them kiss, but the fact that they're dating is kind of weird overall.
Even more questionable is the fact that Josie falls in love with her English teacher (cool for the 24-year-old woman) but weird when it comes to the fact that the teacher falls in love with HER while he still thinks she's only 17.
Statutory rape, anyone?
Not to mention that the brother, who's even OLDER than Josie is also dating high school girls and, yeah, if this movie was at all realistic, it would have ended in a huge legal battle and one of the main characters would have probably ended up in a tabloid, at the least...or in jail, at the worst.
But, for what it is, the movie is cute, sugary and feel-good, but not at all surprising or inspiring.
Movie Review: A film about me! :)
Summary: 3 Stars
Except I so wouldn't have chosen Drew Barrymore to play me. But she plays the part so incredibly well! If you suffered at high school, you need to see this. It's extremely cringe-worthy, and the whole prom bit, when "Josie Grossie" was still in high school, makes your heart go out to her. The reason I knocked this rating down to 3 stars, was it really dragged just before the prom, when she was undercover. A whole lot could be sliced. Before and after that was great. The ending was very predictable, although it's sad at the same time - I didn't think it was going to happen! Get off the pitch, so they can play their game guys!
I didn't understand the whole marijuna cake bit at first, but it was very surreal to watch it! It's like watching Renee Zellweger sing drunkenly in Bridget Jones - most of this film must have been a total embarrassment for Drew to film!
What else can I say about this film, apart from the fact that David Arquette should have had a bigger part.
And who's idea was it for Drew and her idiotic date to go dressed as people from Shakespeare?! Jeez.