The Secret Lives of Dorks

A painful flick to watch!

I used the 'pickup lines' (which are the funniest part of the movie) as band aides for my wounds.

I adore Jennifer Tilly and why she gets bad roles is just a mystery -- she has the best role in this mind numbing flick. Certainly a movie made for the tween and early teen group.

The laughs and plot line are so thin in the story it's an ordeal to write a review. It's a high school 'in group' = stupid kids vs the 'out group' = smart kids. An out group kid likes an in group girl - she both ignores him and pities him. Football guy is a jerk!

End of story!

This film revolves around a high school student named "Payton" (Gaelan Connell) who everyone thinks is a dork and they treat him accordingly. Yet despite his lack of social skills and popularity he maintains a huge crush on the head cheerleader named "Carrie" (Riley Voelkel) who wants nothing to do with him. So to keep him from pestering her Carrie attempts to play matchmaker and pressures him into asking another student named "Samantha" (Vanessa Marano) out instead. And because he is incredibly awkward this leads to all kinds of problems for both him and Samantha. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that--in spite of some crude humor here and there--this turned out to be an okay comedy for the most part with Jim Belushi (as Payton's dad "Coach Bronko") and the attractive Riley Voelkel standing out the most in my opinion. Again, it's not a great comedy by any means, but I suppose it was worth the time spent and for that reason I have rated accordingly. Average.

This doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it's a fun, pleasant, good-natured wheel. Smart, clever and funny, with fresh twists on the typical high school underdog comedy. Tone reminds of Suburgatory or Hairspray: if you liked those, see it. If you hated them, don't.

Also like Suburgatory, really gifted young cast. It gives all the main stars loads of fun moments, and they nail them time after time. Jennifer Tilly is great and hilarious as usual, and Jim Belushi is really good too. I maybe could have gone for a bit less gross-out humor, but a couple of the gross-outs were actually funny and original. For what it was designed to be, great execution.

Sound is a little muddy in the opening moments, but then improves, so hang in there, relax, and enjoy.

Loved this one. I had a great script and was very funny! Great performances all around from the cast! If you are a self identified nerd like myself I really think you will enjoy it even more as there is a fresh take on the main character who is a nerd. It does have the requisite teenagers who make up the social caste system of every high school themed film but is definitely presented in a fresh and original way! My rating 9/10