definitely "or what you will"

Rating: 8/10 (3 June 2010)

So because Hollywood cannot come up with anything original anymore, they love to adapt real life stories, books, older movies, or in the case of "She's the Man," Shakespeare's plays. This hilarious teen movie is based on the Bard's play Twelfth Night and stars the perfectly cast Amanda Bynes in the lead role.
Let me start off by saying that absolutely NOTHING about "She's the Man" is believable in any way. Amanda Bynes stars as Viola, a girl whose whole life is soccer, though her mother (played by the amazing Julie Hagerty) would much prefer her to be a debutante. Viola's school team is cut, and her musician twin brother Sebastian is about to sneak off to England to play in a festival behind their divorced parents' backs. Viola decides to teach her school a lesson, and disguises herself as Sebastian and attempts to make his school's soccer team so that she can beat the team that rejected her. So she disguises herself as a boy (with the help of her friend Paul, who oh-so-conveniently owns a beauty salon), and naturally at first everyone thinks there is something amiss. Whatever is amiss with her is somehow passed off as mere social awkwardness, and Viola immediately attracts the attention of the lovely Olivia, on whom Viola's roommate Duke has a huge crush. Olivia, however, is somehow smitten with Viola (whom Olivia thinks is Sebastian), and Viola must somehow get Olivia to go out with Duke, although Viola soon begins to fall for Duke herself. Duke promises to make Viola better at soccer so that she can play against her rival school, and somehow Viola must balance being herself and being Sebastian, and ensuring the right people fall in love with the right people, and practice soccer and attend debutante functions...
Let's begin with the downsides to "She's the Man." As penned by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, the team responsible for fellow teen movie Shakespeare adaptation, 1999's "10 Things I Hate About You," this movie has not a shred of believability to it. The actors look like college rather than high school students, except for Amanda Bynes in her Sebastian wig and sideburns, where she looks and sounds like an extremely effeminate twelve-year-old boy. Thus making it all the more unrealistic that someone like Olivia (played by the lovely Laura Ramsey) should even look twice at her, let alone develop a huge crush on her. That being said, "She's the Man" is really one huge caricature. Every element of the plot is completely cookie cutter and predictable, and we know each and every plot twist of the movie before it happens.
Yet somehow, this movie is still hugely enjoyable, mostly due to the hilarity of Amanda Bynes' performance. Bynes' facial expressions, physical comedy, and comedic timing and delivery carry this film and make it worth seeing multiple times. Her supporting teen cast also add tremendously to the humor of the movie. Channing Tatum as Duke Orsino is definitely believable as the jock who is only interested in Olivia for her looks, although of course he falls for Viola due to her charming personality and who she really is. Tatum has some hilarious physically comedic moments as well, and does fine in his role. Laura Ramsey is perfect as the sweet and beautiful Olivia. Alex Breckenridge as Sebastian's perpetually-in-a-bad-mood girlfriend, Clifton Murray and Brandon McLaren as soccer jocks Andrew and Toby, Emily Perkins as the geeky Eunice Bates and Jonathan Sadowski as Viola's beauty-salon-owner friend Paul add the perfect elements of fun and comicality to the movie. And the adult cast is also impeccably funny – Julie Hagerty, David Cross and Vinnie Jones are simply delightful in their roles, however much of a caricature their roles may be.
Bottom line for this movie – if you're looking for any surprises or plot twists or a sense of believability, don't see "She's the Man." If you're looking for a lot of laughs and immensely enjoyable performances, this movie has them in spades. I give it an 8 out of 10.