Hoffnungslos verliebt

Lacks the heart of the other more well known 90s/2000s teen movies. It just feels like there's no substance and it's really hard to root for anyone because you never really get to know anyone.

In the lines of She's All That, Columbia Pictures brings Whatever It Takes, a teen comedy with all the cliches. The story is fairly simple, unpopular guy (Shane West) is in love with hottest girl in the school (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe). His beautiful yet different female friend (Marla Sokoloff) is being adored by the hottest guy in the school (James Franco). So the unpopular guy and the popular guy team up to get the girls. They both help each other in ways that aren't normal to each other. But when the unpopular guy realizes that what he was looking for was right under his nose everything becomes chaotic. The performances are good. Nobody does a stand out job but they all do the best with what they have. The jokes are at times really funny and at times a complete waist of time. There is a lot of racy material for a PG-13 movie. Many of the sexual jokes can get pretty bad. If your a teenager I think you will enjoy this film. Whatever It Takes is a sometime enjoyable and sometime funny teen comedy with a reused plot and many teen comedy cliches. If your looking for a comedy that breaks new ground this just ain't it. But if your looking to enjoy yourself, you might just get a kick out of it.

Routine teen effort about a nerd (Shane West) and a high school jock (James Franco) who team up together to help each other land the girl of their dreams. Very appealing cast and competent direction makes this film mildly entertaining, but their is nothing that seperates this predictable film from 1000 other films in this genre.

Rated PG-13; Sexual Situations and Profanity.

Ryan Woodman (Shane West) and Maggie Carter (Marla Sokoloff) are neighbors and best friends. Ryan is a very sensible guy, his nerd friends are very weird and has a crush in Ashley Grant (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe). Ashley is a shallow but popular, beautiful and sexy girl in their high school. Her cousin Chris Campbell (James Franco) is a brainless and dumb American football player, who wants to have a date with Maggie. Ryan and Chris make a deal: each one of them will introduce and help the other to be with the girl of their dreams. This movie is so predictable that around six minutes of story I could foresee the end. The story is full of clichés, but there are some funny (but also expected) situations. The teen cast is not bad and in the end it becomes a reasonable and forgettable entertaining. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): `Correndo Atrás' (`Running After')

A nerdy teen, Ryan Woodman (Shane West) is smitten with the popular and gorgeous Ashley Grant (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe), who apparently has no interest in him. Meanwhile, dim star athlete Chris Campbell (James Franco) has his eye on Ryan's brainy and beautiful friend, Maggie Carter (Marla Sokoloff). The two agree to help each other in their romantic quests, but, as they come closer to their goals, both Ryan and Chris suspect that they might be pursuing the wrong girls.

As you can tell, "Whatever It Takes" is certainly nothing new or ground-breaking, but for what it is, it's entertaining and slightly above-average. James Franco is the best thing about this movie, although his character and their motive is very questionable. He's what kept me sticking around until the credits roll. The film has every teen cliché in the book, geeky sidekicks in Whatever It Takes are no better or worse than those in a dozen other teen movies of recent vintage, but they get the job done. Despite its flaws there's something sweet and delightfully anarchic about it, it's light, fluffy, fast-paced, and through the use of overdone ideas are a couple original moments. So despite its formulaic plot and all-too-tired themes, this John Hughes-movie wannabe has just enough quirky charm to compensate for its generic story.