L'amour à la dérive

My friend CK asked me to go along for this movie, as he's a huge Amanda Bynes fan, having followed her television series What I Like About You, and both of us agreed upon her comic potential in She's The Man, which was a pretty fun gender bender movie.

With a title like that, there's nothing too cerebral about Lovewrecked. No, it's not a doomed spoof of the Love Boat, but the teenage romance here is quite as cheesy and predictable. Bynes stars as Jenny Riley, and we're quickly introduced to her character's idol worshipping of screen pop singing sensation Jason Masters (Chris Carmack), going totally bonkers during his concert, much to the detriment of best buddy Ryan (Jonathan Bennett).

During their summer job at a Caribbean resort, she finds herself caught in a man-overboard situation with Jason, and the two of them thus began a Robinson Crusoe life - until of course Jenny discovers that they aren't really shipwrecked on some remote island at all, and keeps this as a secret from Jason. When her love rival participates in her little charade, it becomes like the reality TV series Survivor, where each have to outplay, outwit and outlast the other in order to get the affections of the lone pop star.

Directed by Randal Kleiser of Grease and The Blue Lagoon fame, this movie too had Bynes strut around mostly in bikinis, the apparel of choice for any girl working at a resort / stuck in a desert island. Bynes still haven't lost her comic timing, however here she's let down by an extremely weak story, and an even more disappointing lack of laughs from the stilted comedy. There are comedic situations which either make you laugh, or make you laugh from how bad it is. Sadly Lovewrecked had more of the latter, and for one scene, had to rely on the toilet humour favourite of the fart sequence.

As for the other characters, they're basically all one dimensional. The catty love rival, the handsome scheming nice-on-outside-unethical-on-inside pop star, the pining buddy, the mean resort manager, the horny colleague, the arrogant star assistants and minders, the list goes on. The Riley parents were such throwaway characters that you wonder if their inclusion was for the sake of extending the run time, which clocks in at a short 86 minutes.

So unless you're a true blue Bynes fan, or have that penchant for teenage romance movies, do steer clear or you'll find yourself getting pretty bored at predictability.

Jenny Taylor (Amanda Bynes) is a rabid fan of rock star Jason Masters (Chris Carmack). Alexis (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) is her ever present nemesis. Her best friend Ryan (Jonathan Bennett) is secretly in love with her. She and Ryan go to work at Masters' favorite Caribean resort. The jaded Masters later arrives at the resort with his entourage. Masters falls overboard on a yacht and he's rescued by Jenny. Nobody else notices and the two are stranded on an isolated beach. Jenny discovers that they landed close to the resort but she hides it from Masters. Ryan is convinced to help her in her ruse. Alexis follows Ryan and competes with Jenny while joining in on the ruse.

This is a silly teen comedy. It tries to be a little sexy with Amanda in her bikini. I actually don't mind the Blue Lagoon start. It has some possibilities but it gets too convoluted and too silly. Jamie-Lynn Sigler is not helping anything. Amanda is still a charming performer at the time but this is not good.

This movie was shallow and very, very predictable. Even if it's been a very long time since I watched this movie, I'd forgotten most of the scenes, but I could already predict what the ending would be during the first 2 minutes of the movie! It was just so obvious. Watch the first two minutes, I dare you, and you'll know who Jenny's going to be ending up with.

Love Wrecked revolves around Jenny (Amanda Bynes) who is utterly in love with rockstar, Jason Masters. Her dreams are made when her idol checks in the resort that she works in. Thanks to some situations, she manages to get the both of them alone together, stranded in an island. The thing is, they're not really alone. Jenny found out that the "marooned island" that they're on, is actually connected to the resort! And mayhem occurs.

Seeing Amanda Bynes in this movie, reminded me of her in "She's the Man", "The Amanda Show" and "What a Girl wants". If you think about it, her character is all the same. A goofy teenager who does weird faces. Sort of like Jim Carrey, only younger and not as good. I'm just saying here. I don't know if that means she's a good actress or if she's just good in acting like a "goofy teenager".

I did have a few laughs. I liked the competition that Jenny and Alexis had. Aaand, that's about it. Maybe my rating was too harsh, but that's the truth. Not the best film out there. Very predictable. There's not much of a storyline here. But hey, if you just want to have a quick fun flick, this movie could be it.

I saw it at the 1st Annual Dominican Republic Int'l Film Festival at the Sun Village Resort in Puerto Plata (as already stated, this is the location where it was filmed). I thought it was pretty good. The version they showed us was still in a rough cut stage.

It is most definitely a movie for fans of Amanda. I'm not a big fan but I like her acting style and her "cuteness factor." I would recommend the movie to anyone looking for a light hearted youthful sort of teeny-Hopper movie.

As for the filming location, I would recommend Sun Village to anyone looking for a great Caribbean Vacation. :) Best, Dan

I'm not a total teen movie, chick flick freak or anything...but I watched this movie and must admit that it wasn't anything offensive. And frankly, I find most teen movies and chick flicks do offend me. So this was quite a surprise. I liked Amanda in "She's the man!", thought that she did a decent job, and she seams to have no shame in making a fool out of herself in this movie. If you're looking for something very light and with nothing bad in it, then this might be a good movie to see once (as I'm so used to intense, sad and depressing pictures set in cold, dark, Eastern European castles where vampires are always popping up).

Jenny is a bookish girl from Massechusetts, about to enter into medical school, right after she finishes her summer school job program (along with her best of friends', Ryan). Set in a romantic Caribbean, paradise like resort, that is where she and Ryan are to spend the rest of their summer working at the Hotel. Although, suddenly something disturbs what should have been the best time for Ryan to make a move on Jenny (because he's always had a crush on her since they were kids), when a Rock star comes to stay at the Hotel for 2 days on a layover to one of his other gigs. Jenny has been waiting to be swept off of her feet by a man all of her teen life, and she's been fantasizing over this Rock star meeting her and somehow loving her that whole time. Realising that this might be her last chance in the world to get this kind of opportunity: She stows away pretending to be a waitress on one of the Hotels' private boats which Mr.Rock star will be dinning in that night. Just then a storm hits the island, somehow her and Mr.Rock star end up in a life boat together. They wake up the next morning and find that they are marooned. Jenny realizes that this could be the perfect chance to make the man of her dreams realize he "loves" her...

Meanwhile, back at the resort, Jenny's worst enemy is working hard to find out her secret and destroy her...

Yes, other people have been complaining that this movie is too predictable. But on the other hand, there's nothing wrong with a little bit of light-hearted humor, plus an innocent, nice guy getting the girl in the end.