Pretty good overall

Rating: 7/10 (8 December 2004)

Based on Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew," "10 Things I Hate About You" offers a refreshing revival of the "good" teen films, as compared to the "typical" teen films.
It's based on Shakespeare's story somewhat loosely. It's about a teenaged girl whose father will not allow her to date. Finally he comes up with a clever idea - if she can convince her older sister (who is a strict, boring "b***") to date someone, the younger sibling can as well. Her father knows this is as realistic as saying "When pigs begin to fly" but then he can't be accused of being unfair.
"10 Things..." is overall pretty good. It's better than I thought it would be. It has some funny moments, it's got a talented cast with some older actors popping up in various humorous roles, etc. It's not as refreshing or unique as a John Hughes teen comedy but it certainly plays upon some of the clichÃ©s of the genre (invented by Hughes no less) to good effect.
Overall, I was impressed with the movie, and the actors, and that's saying a lot considering it's a teen film (a genre I have come to loathe recently with entries such as "Slackers" etc.).