College attitude

The nice thing about Drew Barrymore - or, to paraphrase the late Douglas Adams, ONE of the nice things for there are several - is that she's willing to try almost anything from "Guncrazy" to "Ever After" (although I suspect she would draw the line at "Bad Girls 2"). In this appealing though predictable teen flick, she's an eager writer for a newspaper given a chance to prove she can do more by going undercover to see what today's teens are up to in high school, and finds that nothing's really changed.

Drew is as engaging as ever whether appearing in class way too overdressed or dancing on stage while on drugs (relax, the film's overall pretty inoffensive), and it may have been prophetic that her joke about having been named Josie after the leader of a cartoon rock band goes over the head of her best friend at school (the film version of "Josie and the Pussycats" was a box office flop in America). The movie isn't exactly surprising, and won't appeal to anyone who insists on teen films having acid in their veins - but then again, the edgier "Jawbreaker" wasn't just bad-spirited, it was BAD, period. Call me soppy, but I like a happy ending, and this does have one (even The Prettiest Girls In School don't turn out to be that horrid in the end).

If only the Seekers' "Free To Be You And Me" (which Drew and her friends sing along to in a car in one scene) and some of David Newman's sweet score had been on the soundtrack album, but that's not a problem exclusive to this film; what with this and "Charlie's Angels" (not to mention "Olive, the Other Reindeer") Barrymore's record as a producer is a lot better than, say, Michelle Pfeiffer's. And as I said in the summary, you get Drew Barrymore and Jessica Alba in the same movie (this is a Twentieth Century Fox movie in more ways than one).

Never Been Kissed is not a perfect movie, but I wasn't expecting that. The story is predictable yet simple and the ending is hokey, but I still liked the film. Why did I? Firstly, Drew Barrymore. There may be people who don't like her, I do and I have since seeing her in Ever After(and that was a wonderful film). Here she does what she does best, which is cute and funny romance, the result is that we are treated to a fun and captivating performance. Secondly, David Arquette is a lot of fun as Barrymore's slightly odd older brother, and I also enjoyed Leelee Sobieski's minor turn here. Michael Vartan is charming in his own way as well. The script does have its humorous moments, the film does have a nice feel-good element to it, the direction is fine and the soundtrack is nice. Overall, an enjoyable movie, not a masterpiece, but just a nice bit of fluff. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I was a freshman in high school when this movie came out and I LOVED it. Maybe it was because I had a huge crush on my English teacher and this was my way of fantasizing a hot teacher falling for one of his students. My 15 year old self didn't understand how unethical that would have been (not to mention illegal), I just thought it was soooo romantic. Fast forward 20 years to rewatching it with my husband and it was a completely different experience. The premise is still cute and the sad parts are still sad, but I couldn't get past how creepy that teacher was. All she did was read poetry and give smart answers in his class and he was smitten. While my young self got excited every time he gave her gooey eyes, my adult self was shocked that a teacher would act act so inappropriately. If he had been in on the secret, it would have been okay I guess. But all of that with his girlfriend and him getting jealous when she was with other teenagers (also unethical because she was interested in an underaged boy at one point) was just too much for me. I could barely watch it. It could have been a cute movie if it had been written a little bit differently, but wow.

Very sadly, I can relate to this movie, as I'm 17, and have yet to be kissed, so I really feel for Josie. It's been a while since seeing this film, but to write this review I re-watched it, and remembered everything I loved about it.

Drew Barrymore is a great actress, and this role suited her really well at the time. The chemistry between Sam and Josie was really good, and Michael Vartan was an excellent actor in this.

I loved the storyline too - as i said up there, I could relate, and it's rare you find a film you can completely relate to.

All over - I loved it. 7/10

I thought my one-line summary was going to be 'this was a very bad idea', a line spoken by Drew Barrymore's character. At that point in the movie, there were no likeable characters to speak of, except maybe Drew's brother. But Drew's character grew on me. And her brother played a bigger role in the movie's second half. Overall, things started getting better as time went on. And the best acting performance, to me, was that of the actress playing a nerdy kid who became Drew's friend. I was pleasantly surprised to find the name Leelee Sobieski in the credits. She has impressed me before, without my knowing who she was, and she did it again. By the end of the movie, I was feeling pretty good. It didn't have to be quite so dirty, though.