In Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back the title characters are informed their likeness will be used in a film made by Miramax. Jay expresses surprise - don't they make classy films like The Piano? Ben Affleck nods but then adds "then they made She's All That and it all changed."
This film was a surprise hit, maybe because it came out at the right time, just when teen movies were back in a big way. The core story has always been popular: cool guy pretends to like geeky girl for a bet. Audiences were evidently willing to overlook the fact that Rachel Leigh Cook is a stunner even with glasses and Freddy Prinze Jnr is a nerd. There is a support cast to die for: Kevin Pollack (genuinely funny as Cook's dad), Anna Paquin, Matthew Lilliard, Charlie from The West Wing as the token black, Paul Walker.
I always enjoy this plot but the film throws away things wholesale: Prinze Jnrs dilemma is poorly developed, they set up an interesting plot twist when Walker seems to genuinely like Cook but then he doesn't (a similar thing happened in Whatever It Takes), the climax is a fizz (what's so evil about Walker wanting to have sex with Cook), the female bitch is a caricature.
The film bears the imprint of its studio, Miramax, more than any movie I can remember in recent years, complete with in house "stars" such as Lilliard and Prinze Jnr. This made Prinze Jnr a star for a short period of time until he fixed it with in Wing Commander, Down to You, Boys and Girls, Head Over Heels and Summer Catch: getting away with one crap movie he tried to repeat it five times and kept getting caught out.
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