Misleading title. Cliched ending.

Rating: 6/10 (29 January 2001)

Based on the title, it seemed to me that "10 Things I Hate About You" should have been a movie about unlikeable characters doing despicable things to one another with comedic results. Probably a black comedy, perhaps along the lines of "The War of the Roses".
It turns out, however, that the plot is a sweet high school romance story in which several unlikely scenarios play out just right, and everybody ends up happy in the end. The cast works well together, highlighting Joseph Gordon-Levitt's ("Tommy" on NBC's "3rd Rock from the Sun") attempt to romance Larisa Oleynik, whom is not allowed to date until her sister (Julia Stiles) begins to date as well. Unfortunately, Stiles' character is rather bitter at men and life in general, so getting her to date proves a chore until the school criminal played by Heath Ledger comes into the picture.

I wasn't aware that this is actually based on a Shakespeare play. I only read "MacBeth" and "Romeo and Juliet" in school, although because of this movie, I'm now interested in reading "The Taming of the Shrew". (upon which this movie was derived.)
One complaint I must note: In the past year or two, I've seen several movies where either the main plot or a sub plot involves a teenage guy dating a girl for purely selfish reasons (getting paid by friends, trying to win a bet, etc.), but SURPRISE! he ends up falling for her anyway. Then of course, right when the most romantic moment promises to be right around the corner, SURPRISE! the girl finds out and gets her feelings hurt, and then the guy has to convince her that "it's not really like that", and eventually she forgives him and they stay together. It's starting to get a little overused as it's been played out in recent movies as diverse as: Cruel Intentions, She's All That, Carrie 2: The Rage, and now 10 Things I Hate About You.

Maybe Hollywood should start writing some new material, instead of rehashing the popular plot lines of previous films. But then again, I suppose it wouldn't be Hollywood with any real originality, would it?