I watched these movies the wrong way round, I watched Not Another Teen Movie before I ever watched this film, as this is my first viewing, and seeing all the moments that Not Another Teen Movie was parodying from it made this film quite hard to watch because I just kept laughing.

She’s All That looks at a very popular boy set a bet with his friends to turn one of the most undesirable girls in the school into prom queen in just six weeks. His friends choose a girl called Laney who is an art freak that is very standoffish and a loner, and so he decides to pursue her.

In this film we see Laney slowly come to accept this boy as something more than what he’s perceived as at school, and we also see her go through the usual 90s change of removing her glasses and taking her ponytail out and suddenly she’s hot. I did find it annoying how in the film we see the male lead grow and change throughout the film however Laney just seems to accept this new look that has been thrust upon her and doesn’t actually seem to change, she accepts herself in this new role and that’s it. In this film I wanted more depth from her, yes she has some, but not enough in my opinion.

And I will say this film is very 90s, from the soundtrack to the style to the actors involved, it’s very of its time and if you can watch it as if you’re watching it in the 90s then it’s very enjoyable. Watching it in the 2020s it can be quite problematic, that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the film because I did, but I think there are better teenage romcoms out there to enjoy and this is not one that I would rush back to watch any time soon.

I have seen a review of He’s All That, the gender bent remake of this film starring Addison Rae, and from that review I watched on YouTube I cannot see the similarities between them. Yes they have the same sort of premise but that’s about it, and it’s just made me realise even more that I do not want to watch that remake and never will because it looks absolutely awful. This film at least for its time made sense in the context of the 90s American high school, however the Addison Rae version just seems to be an anomaly that doesn’t fit into any current world that we are living in.

If you enjoy this film that’s perfectly fine but for me it’s not one I would rush back to watch. As an adult I also watched 13 Going On 30 for the first time and I much prefer that film. Even films that I’ve enjoyed since being a child, including Legally Blonde and other romcoms, I find their stories more exciting and relatable and this one is just a bit strange, however watching it now I do understand why it was the main focus of the Not Another Teen Movie movie, because it is quite trashy.

What do you think of She’s All That?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding