I Love You, Beth Cooper

In your typical teen comedy there comes the standard, "we must lose our virginity" and "gross-out" scenes and lots of pop culture references. In I Love You Beth Cooper, there is none of that. It's a real love story laced with some funny things to say.

Denis (Paul Rust) gives a final speech as he graduates and proclaims his love for Beth Cooper (Hayden Panettiere) while doing so. He also has some fun by telling the entire class about some of the other flawed students. To his surprise, Beth and her two friends, are the only people, aside from his friend Rich, who come to his party.

I liked this movie for a lot of reasons, but most of all because it wasn't like American Pie, Superbad, or Road Trip. It had some heart to it and it wasn't just a bunch of teen comedies with a bunch of nudity and sex. I loved the fact that Hayden Panettiere was the main role and how she was the fantasy girl that every guy dreams of being with, but still a down-to-Earth girl.

There's tons of jokes, that aren't idiotic. There's a lot of fun and changing of scenes in this movie and a lot of romantic moments as well. I think the movie would be amazing if it had some sort of moral or real ending. I'll let you figure out what I mean by that. But I don't think the ending is satisfying.

It's an entertaining film, and if you're in the dawn of graduating or have just you'll probably love it. If you're a couple years shy of graduating you may not relate as much. I think I liked it even more because I graduated recently.

Valendictorian Dennis Cooverman (Paul Rust) gives the craziest of all graduation speech. First he proclaims "I love you, Beth Cooper". Beth (Hayden Panettiere) is the hot popular cheerleader. That's before his speech makes enemies. He even declares that his best friend Rich Munsch (Jack Carpenter) is gay. He invites her to his graduation party. It's only him and Rich but then surprisingly, Beth shows up with her girlfriends Cammy (Lauren London) and Treece (Lauren Storm).

This movie really struggles with Paul Rust as the lead. He's a geeky looking guy but not nearly adorable enough. He's quirky but not that funny. The character really demands to be played by a faux-geek rather a real nerd like Rust. Hayden Panettiere's character is not somebody on a pedestal. She's a little bit complicated and that's a good thing. The problem is that she's not the lead. Rust is the lead and he can't carry the movie.

After seeing a trailer that seemed to have promise I was rather surprised at how much this film lacked any laughs. This fault lies with the directing and editing. The actors seemed to give performances up to that of any other teen comedy, but the timing of the whole movie was off.....and in comedy, timing is everything! The fact that the story has little character set-up and uses every cliché stolen from numerous comedies before it does not help the ill paced scenes.

I managed to leave the theater without requesting my money back, but you know when people in the audience are having full conversations during a film, it is hardly holding anyone's attention.

Pass at the B.O. and only rent it on DVD if you have an unlimited plan and are running out of things to see.

This is my first review but I'm not going to say everyone will agree with what I have to say but what I can say is I loved the movie, this movie had all the signs that he's going to get the girl blah blah blah which I loved and I enjoyed it but this movie shows you a ending can really go from a 7/10 to a 5/10. Ya that's 0 to 100 real quick! The ending really made me not like this. It sucks to say that because watching it all the way thru just to watch that ending it will make you laugh, cry and even blush and root for the guy but just to piss you off in the end so ya loved the movie all the way thru I thought the actors and actresses were good it was just the ending that had me never wanting to watch it again. If we are single at our 10 years I'm going to marry you! He didn't get the girl sadly.

Come on, this is a high school comedy the way they used to do them back in the '80s! This is not John Hughes territory, as you might be led to believe upon seeing "Home Alone" director Chris Columbus at the helm. No, this is another breed of '80s comedy. This is more "Three O'Clock High" than "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," which is not necessarily a bad thing, depending on your taste. The humor here is broad and unsophisticated, for the most part, but fits with the brisk pacing and sunny tone of the film. This movie invites you to have a good time along with the cast. It throws you in the middle of a heightened reality/unlikely scenario (most geeks do not suddenly grow a pair and profess their love for the hottest girl in school during their valedictorian speech) and beckons you to simply enjoy the ride. While the films of John Hughes endeavor to depict a realistic panoramic view into the teenage mind, taking stereotypes and turning them inside out, this film, and its grandaddy "Three O'Clock High" do not carry such aspirations. They are fantasy, pure and true, and are all about having a good time. If the characters are two dimensional, so what? If the plot is threadbare, so what? Character development and story arc are not reasons to see a movie like "I Love You Beth Cooper." This is just a classic homespun yarn, taking place in Anywhere, USA, about a geek who outsmarts a bully and gets the girl. If you expected more, you're going to be disappointed. This is the kind of movie that could work just as well as a cartoon. It's a zippy, predictable ride from point A to point B, but the journey is not lacking in entertainment value. If you, like me, are a fan of "Three O'Clock High" and on many-a-day would watch it over "Bueller," then you're in for a treat because this is practically a remake albeit with the addition of a love interest.