He's All That

Helmed by Mark Waters (Mean Girls, 2003’s Freaky Friday) and with a script from R. Lee Fleming Jr., the screenwriter behind the original movie, He’s All That is one of the best high-school romantic comedies in recent history. It uses the old movie’s makeover template to carve out a romantic story that hits all the satisfying beats, turning turns them into something refreshing… and actually better than the original movie.

He’s All That may be a flattened reflection of its predecessor, but both films are charming enough to get away with about one anal sex innuendo joke apiece.

While it’s possible to make the formulaic and familiar resound fantastically, that concept has evaded these filmmakers here. Neither bland regurgitation nor innovative retelling, the remake falls somewhere in between, suffering greatly by not establishing a more distinctive identity.

Undemanding movie-goers on the lookout for a movie featuring pretty people in a vapid rom-com that might find this movie to their liking. For everyone else, this is decidedly not “all that.”

Manufactured for the ‘Kissing Booth’ crowd, this gender-swapped, TikTok-friendly update of the 1999 teen hit sounds awful and it often is, but enough charm pokes through the cracks to sucker anyone who ever fell for a makeover fable.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with the idea of a teen rom-com centered on social media popularity and influencer culture—even one that doesn’t necessarily see those things as evil. But He’s All That offers nothing beyond buzzwords, empty platitudes, and sponcon.

He’s All That is, yes, a nightmarish, joyless commentary on influencer-beholden adolescence told through the crutch of nostalgia and starring a charisma-less TikTok star, but it’s hard to know if one is merely an example of “Old Man Yells at Cloud” or if the teenagers of today are truly living in a Hell on Earth

THIS IS SO GOOD. Addison Rae is a queen of Netflix. I’m so proud of her, realy good.

Obviously, this is gender switch on the 1999 film She’s All That. This time an Insta influencer (Addison Rae) takes on the project of turning one of her high school’s apparent losers (Tanner Buchanan) into a hottie. Since this is essentially based on Pygmalion, you know how it’ll go down, so the challenge is getting there. Rae seems slightly artificial (but that may be the character), but Buchanan makes a charming, sexy romantic interest. Actors in the original, Rachael Leigh Cook and Matthew Lillard make appearances (his turn is one of the comic highlights). Otherwise, there aren’t any especially kooky or fun supporting characters and nothing about it is anything but expected. An upbeat but very teen romance.

Made for the Netflix consumer audience that think The Kissing Booth trilogy was a good thing, so spare me the fake surprise of not understanding how this was made. After all, Netflix it's a business and if these crappy films makes them keep enough subscribers for us to get some decent productions, then I'm ok with it. And how was it? To be honest it's just pointless and dull. You should better watch the 1999 film. True, an incredibly sexist film, but at least Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachel Leigh Cook were much more decent leads in that bad story. That doesn't translate into a good movie, but for both of them, especially this gender-swapped "update" that's the least of its problems.

If I would have to create a new word describing this movie, it would be cringeclownfestival. Watching "social media personality" Addison Rae attempting to be creative (both in music and now movies) is an insult. Paris Hilton is Meryl Streep compared to this and that should give you enough hints. I gave it a few points because the other actors were okay-ish.

bad [ bad ] adjective, worse, worst;(Slang) bad·der, bad·dest for 36. not good in any manner or degree.