Den Einen oder keinen

Yet another Freddie Prinze Jnr-lead teen romance comedy about two college students, Alec (Prinze Jnr) and Imogen (Julia Stiles, Save The Last Dance) who fall in love, and experience the highs and lows of being in a serious relationship. The good stuff: Unique and refreshing editing, Julia Stiles. The bad stuff: Freddie Prinze Jnr... he's a very ordinary actor, the plot... 100% unoriginal and not very engaging. Overall, I wouldn't say this is a bad movie, but it's not 'good' in any sense of the term and is ultimately completely forgettable.

Now I could win awards for being the world's biggest romcom lover. I mean I'll even watch really really bad ones ('The Wedding Date' anyone?) but this is one of the ones I didn't really like. I mean it's watchable, don't get me wrong, but it's not something I'm likely to rewatch in a hurry. Freddie Prinze Jnr just isn't an engaging person and I just didn't feel the chemistry between him and Julia Stiles and the peripheral characters weren't charming or interesting at all. Having said that there's this amazing scene where Julia Stiles dances in front of a room of people (.... cue 10 Things, The Prince And Me, Save The Last Dance ....) and it's really funny. I'd say that was the thing worth watching this film for.

Down to You: Boy meets girl, they fall in love, relationship cools, couple breaks up and each is tortured by thoughts of "What if…"

I decided to see this movie because I enjoyed Julia Stiles' performance in "10 Things I Hate About You". However, after seeing the marquee poster - a knockoff of "The Very Thought of You" - I scaled down my expectations and braced for a painful two hours. My prediction was partially correct.

Unlike the typical teen oriented romantic comedy there was an attempt to infuse this movie with a bit of reality. Unfortunately, the writers apparently could not decide if they wanted to make a romantic comedy or a serious relationship movie. The result is a confused mess: a ludicrous subplot about a student's burgeoning career as a pornographer gets far more screen time than does the terrified couple trying to come to grips with a potential pregnancy.

The second problem is the chemistry between Stiles and Freddie Prinze Jr - there is none (I blame the casting director for this). Although both actors have screen presence, they don't click as a duo, consequently, their interactions- especially the fight scenes -do not ring true. Their job is made doubly difficult by having to utter stupid lines.

This movie has been targeted to a certain market, and will probably do well.

Too bad.

Al and Imogen have both finished college and now live separately despite seeing each other throughout their college years. However it is clear that both have some degree of unresolved feelings for each other. In to-camera interviews they discuss their relationship and trace it's path from the first time they met in Imogen's freshman year.

It is a device that I have grown accustom to because I have seen it done well quite often, but the direct-to-camera style is clearly difficult to do. First of all you need strong or likeable characters as the style is basically requiring some degree of interest of empathy from the first second. Without this it is pretty weak. This film stumbles at this point because even halfway through the film, I was still struggling to care less about the characters. Past this problem the plot is not the strongest – it has been done before regardless of superficial changes. It has little genuine humour and mostly is just the cinematic version of puppy love. When the problems come they are so poorly handled by the script that they fail to convince.

Sadly the blame must be shared between script and actors for most of this. The script fails to create characters that convince. The dialogue rarely rings true and sounds like a weak teen drama at worst. However this doesn't totally excuse the actors as they don't bring much to the roles. Prinze Jr is so wishy-washy and lifeless that he is not someone I ever got behind as real. He is too idealistic and, as a result, any scenes where he has to show hurt or anger, are unbelievable. Stiles is OK but suffers from a poor script. The support cast are basically monkeys who are simply comedy characters. I know that sounds cruel but none have any effort put into them – the porn star (no type of porn I've ever seen), the geek etc. Henry Winkler gets the odd smile but is just a famous face to add colour. Selma Blair is the least convincing porn actress I've ever seen but the Biggest waste to me was Rosario Dawson, not only gorgeous but a real talent given the chance, her character was so pointless that I wondered why they even bothered creating it.

It's not an awful film – it is simply mediocre and unremarkable to the point of monotony. Every part of it feels like you've seen it better somewhere else. The script is lazy – things are poorly thought out and the characters are thin and poorly developed. None of the cast really put their heart into it and the end result is a film that doesn't really do anything but still seems to take forever to finish!

Although it will be remembered for things like Trainspotting and My Beautiful Laundrette, FilmFour folded partly because it produced things like this that were without spark, wit or invention.

Al Connelly (Freddie Prinze Jr.) is a college sophomore who meets the girl of his dreams, freshman Imogen (Julia Stiles). His father is famous TV Chef Ray (Henry Winkler) and he would love to be his own master chef.

It's written poorly, and shot awkwardly. This is Kris Isacsson's first big film. The dialog is clunky. It starts right from love at first sight, then meanders with no drama until they break up after a pregnancy scare. There are things that don't make any sense, and things that's just isn't funny. It is being told by both Al and Imogen's point of view. They talk right into the camera at the audience which stops the movie every time and do a lot of narration.

But the future star power of the cast is amazing. They got Selma Blair as a porno star, Ashton Kutcher as a weirdo musician, and Rosario Dawson as her best friend. It's fun to see them when they were lesser known actors.