Correndo Atrás

Whatever it takes is bad, silly, predictable, stupid, and romantic, in exactly the ways it's supposed to be. It follows formula to a tee. Good production quality. The beautiful people are very, and the nerds are unmistakable. Teen gross outs. Hot fashions. Adolescent fantasy at its finest. Both a one and a ten at the same time, I have to give it a five.

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')

I thought this film had some really funny moments and good lines. Marla Sokoloff was perfect for his role, and so was James Franco, who looks as cocky as his character in the film is. The other actress Jodie was played over the top, because she has all these hissy fits which can be funny to watch or annoying. Overall good job but the ending is dumb

The only part of WIT it takes I liked was the set, Maggie and Ryan's balconies. That was cool, plus it had the opportunity to say the one funny part of the film was when Ryan jumps onto her porch and Maggie says the line [not gonna say it if people are reading this who haven't seen the movie]. Much better versions of this storyline were "Never Been Kissed", "She's All That" and the aforementioned "10 Things". I must admit, I was a little confused why they put great actors like Kip Pardue and Christine Lakin in bit parts while Jodi Lyn O'keefe and James Franco were starring.

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.