Ya gotta take the good with the bad with this one...

Rating: Null/10 (21 September 2002)

Okay, so I wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to see this movie. From the looks of the previews and commercials it looked like a dumb excuse for Mandy Moore to act and sing. Plus, any flick that makes girls swoon and gush at the mere mention of the title ala Titanic pretty much goes to the bottom of my must-see list. But when a trip to the Blockbuster resulted in one of the parents renting this, I figured I would take a chance and watch it one night. First the good, because that's harder to write about in a review than the bad. Mandy Moore CAN act, as it turns out, much more so than Britney Spears and Mariah Carey. She pulled off the mousey bookworm character nicely, allowing herself to look like an actual outsider, which is more than I can say for Britney when she was cast as a 'geek' but still paraded around in Banana Republic gear. The male lead, Shane West, was also decent, though kind of limited in his range of emotions. And while the central love story was a bit cliched at times, it won me over in the end. Now for the average, since upon consideration there is nothing truly bad about A Walk To Remember. I didn't like the fact that many of the scenes and characters came right out of Not Another Teen Movie. There was ONE black character, and of course he had to stay stuff like 'bomb diggity' and act all wacky, so when he went into Dramatic Mode and actually tried to show some heart I didn't buy it. His whole character up to that point was a dumb comic stereotype, so why should I bother believing his emotional scenes? And what is it with Hollywood and high schools where the cool kids are so freaking evil? See, in the real world there are social classes in high school, and there is some sort of division, but not to the point where there are plots to totally destroy someone's soul over a lover's spat. Oh wait, never mind. And like I said, with the quality romance many of the Saved By The Bell moments (like the fliers of Mandy Moore's face on a bikini-clad supermodel) seemed bizarrely out of place. All in all, though, this is a good date movie and will definitely put any mushy girl or half-way sentimental fella in Slightly Teary, Almost Crying Mode. Let's just say that if you had to pick from Glitter, Crossroads, or this for your Teen Princess Movie Night, you would be much better off going with Walk. 2.5/4 stars