Total Chick Flick, but above average for a teen movie.

Rating: 7/10 (28 January 2002)

I thought this movie was very sweet, it does have some of the cliches of a teen movie, but at the same time it had a much deeper and more powerful story than most teen movies. Some of you are saying that it's a typical "pretty ugly girl" movie, where the popular guy takes on the mousey girl with glasses, big clothes and a bad haircut and underneath she a babe. And yeah, it's clear that Mandy Moore is no "ugly girl", but it's not like she changed her clothes and cut her hair, she was still the same person at the end as she was at the beginning. Can you name any other "pretty-ugly" girls who didn't change their entire being by the end of the movie?
And I would also like to inform everyone that being pretty doesn't make you automaticly popular in highschool. I knew plenty of girls that were a pretty as any of the "popular" girls and their Friday's night were always free. And many of the "popular" girls are popular because they play a lot of sports, wear trendy clothes, have nice houses to party at, and it didn't hurt to be a little bold with boys. They weren't necessarily popular because they were nice or pretty.
Anyway, I'm done preaching. I liked this movie pretty well. I think Mandy Moore's a decent actress and may have a promising career when she done teen bopping (I think she one of the better teen queens and she's not a ho, unlike a certain singer whose upcoming movie was previewed at this one, and after the 30 seconds I feel like I saw the whole thing)Shane West was also really good, and real cute too. It's no masterpiece, but it's sweet and a good debut for Mandy.