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I Love You Beth Cooper
On the recommendation of a friend, I decided to check out a 2009 teen comedy called I Love You Beth Cooper that has a clever hook from which the story springs, but what we get is a silly and ridiculously over the top comedy that provided precious few genuine laughs and seemed about five hours long.
The film begins at the graduation ceremony for Buffalo Glenn High School, where class valedictorian Denis Coverman delivers the ultimate graduation speech where he says everything he has been dying to say to fellow classmates for years, including the fact that his best friend is gay and doesn't know it, another guy was sexually abused as a child, and most importantly, that he has been madly in love with the head cheerleader, Beth Cooper, forever which leads to a lot of bizarre consequence for Denis.
Not sure what I expected, but I expected a lot more from director Chris Columbus, whose directorial credits include Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Adventures in Babysitting. The film starts out really great. The speech that Denis gives at the graduation is totally awesome, beautifully written by screenwriter Larry Doyle, but the movie goes downhill from there as the consequences of Denis' speech lead to some outrageous physical comedy, over the top destruction of property, But most important of all, is the introduction of the title character, Beth Cooper. She reminded me a lot of Jenny in Forrest Gump...she pretended to be initially outraged by Denis' declaration of love, but was secretly flattered. She then shows up at Denis' graduation party for the specific purpose of teasing the guy and her efforts to keep Denis from being killed by her psycho boyfriend, Kevin are half-hearted to say the least. And the bit of her being \this terrible driver who never should have been issued a driver's license gets tiresome pretty quickly.
On the other hand, Hayden Pannetiere's sparkling performance as the title character is the best thing about the movie. The rest of the cast pretty much grates on the nerves, with the exception of Alan Ruck, who plays Denis' father, best known for playing Cameron in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, a film that I think this film was trying to recapture. but failed dismally. What a mess.
On the recommendation of a friend, I decided to check out a 2009 teen comedy called I Love You Beth Cooper that has a clever hook from which the story springs, but what we get is a silly and ridiculously over the top comedy that provided precious few genuine laughs and seemed about five hours long.
The film begins at the graduation ceremony for Buffalo Glenn High School, where class valedictorian Denis Coverman delivers the ultimate graduation speech where he says everything he has been dying to say to fellow classmates for years, including the fact that his best friend is gay and doesn't know it, another guy was sexually abused as a child, and most importantly, that he has been madly in love with the head cheerleader, Beth Cooper, forever which leads to a lot of bizarre consequence for Denis.
Not sure what I expected, but I expected a lot more from director Chris Columbus, whose directorial credits include Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Adventures in Babysitting. The film starts out really great. The speech that Denis gives at the graduation is totally awesome, beautifully written by screenwriter Larry Doyle, but the movie goes downhill from there as the consequences of Denis' speech lead to some outrageous physical comedy, over the top destruction of property, But most important of all, is the introduction of the title character, Beth Cooper. She reminded me a lot of Jenny in Forrest Gump...she pretended to be initially outraged by Denis' declaration of love, but was secretly flattered. She then shows up at Denis' graduation party for the specific purpose of teasing the guy and her efforts to keep Denis from being killed by her psycho boyfriend, Kevin are half-hearted to say the least. And the bit of her being \this terrible driver who never should have been issued a driver's license gets tiresome pretty quickly.
On the other hand, Hayden Pannetiere's sparkling performance as the title character is the best thing about the movie. The rest of the cast pretty much grates on the nerves, with the exception of Alan Ruck, who plays Denis' father, best known for playing Cameron in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, a film that I think this film was trying to recapture. but failed dismally. What a mess.