User reviews

Maybe I just haven't seen a good "teen girl" movie in so long. In fact, I don't remember the last time I went and saw a "teen girl" movie. Maybe if there were more out there was fun as this, I would. Basically, I had boring, rainy Saturday and a little sister. The trip to the theatre wound up with the two us laughing our heads off and all the appropriate "aww" moments.

The premise is a modern-day Snow White on a college campus. A little contrived, but hey, it apparently worked. Sydney is your average tomboy who is under all sorts of pressure to pledge herself to her dead mother's old sorority. Well, the sorority girls are no longer what they used to be, and the pampered princesses throw Sydney out into the rain. She winds up taking refuge at the Vortex, a student housing building where lives the guy she dumped for a sorority mission and his six bizarre roommates.

Honestly, I didn't think it would work. But it did, and besides the cuteness there is a little more moral meat as Sydney and her new friends lead a student body revolution. Yeah, it's cheesy and we've seen the revenge-of-the-nerds theme many a time before, but it's so goodhearted and fun that I couldn't help but love it, stereotypes, predictability, and all.

All the characters seemed very much into their roles. I wouldn't say I'm an Amanda Bynes fan, but she failed to annoy me this time around! It was a great blend of an old story with modern college life with clever, roll-your-eyes references to the original Disney animated film. It might bother some people, but as a Snow White fan I thought they were cute.

It's definitely a girl movie, I'll give you that, so if you can't put up with the silliness and the cheesiness, you will not enjoy it. But if you're a girl looking for a cute movie with a lot of harmless fun, this will hit the spot. This is one I will definitely buy on DVD and watch when I need something light and fun.

Not the most artistic of film making and not a whole lot of focus on in-depth characters and originality, but as a former teenage girl, I will happily give this adorable little film 7/10 for sheer sweetness, a good heart, and a passion for doing the right thing. Sometimes we just need that girly spunk.

Don't we all wish our lives could be fairy tales??? In this movie, that's exactly what one naive and tomboyish girl named Sydney White gets. To us, it seems like a rather familiar story.

What Amanda Bynes is so good at is delivering clean and funny teen and family comedies. She is a very funny actress, and continues to be respectable by not screwing up her life like most actresses her age. She's cute as Sydney, though her tan was not. It was quite over-done in fact. Besides her the ones who steal the show are, of course, the dorks (aka dwarfs). They are certainly adorable, and we can't help but think that Sydney has found the best possible friends on campus. The downfall in the cast was Sara Paxton as the arch-nemesis Rachel WITCHburn. She just didn't seem quite evil enough for me. Crystal Hunt was also not that great as Sydney southern friend Dinky.

There are some laugh-out-loud moments and one-liners. The most fun part of the movie is catching the fairy tale parts as they come. That and watching the dorks. "Sydney White" is a fine family film and will even work well for teens, and it has a very nice message. However, it never reaches any kind of high point and kind of just seems to go on at a continuous rate. Still, it's worth a watch as a diversion from reality and back into fairy tale world. 6/10 stars!

Jay Addison

Sydney White stars popular actress Amanda Bynes as the new girl in an elite college sorority. The Kappa Sisterhood is made up of a group of size 2 beautiful clones, all praising their mean-spirited leader, Rachel Witchburn (Sara Paxton).

As Sydney's popularity rises, Rachel begins to feel threatened by her. And so begins a story of rejection; acceptance and love. Sydney meets the handsome Beta fraternity leader Tyler (Matt Long) who is besotted by the good-natured Sydney.

With seven new geeky friends in the vortex house, Sydney decides to run for student president. Some good clean comedy ensues. Sydney White is a teen girl's dream movie; lots of romanticised idealism and a warm-fuzzy ending

The movie isn't original. We all have seen many revenge of the nerds/dorks/good guys movies. So you know how it ends before it starts. The bad characters are also so one sided and boring. Nothing special about them, they are just overdone bad.

But I still like the movie. I give it above average rating because I liked all the Snow White references. Mainly the poisoned apple and the seven dwarfs. They make the movie especially funny with their charming characters and personalities. So it is a pretty good movie when one doesn't expect much and just wants a few laughs.

"Sydney White" is the typical losers-become-winners where we cheer for the underdogs.

Amanda Bynes is Sydney White, a freshman in college, who doesn't fit in with her Greek sorority. Determined to fight them she teams up with 7 'dorks' and launches a campaign to win back the school. Yes it is supposed to be a modern update of Snow White which I find lame, but it's easy to ignore that.

It has all of the characters you expect to find, the cute tomboy, the pretty and popular mean girl, the cute and popular but also sweet guy, and the geek (7 of them in this case). The great thing about these characters is that the important ones, who are supposed to be more than just caricatures, actually are.

And of course the highlight is Amanda Bynes, she is funny and sweet and pretty and very easy to like. Most people are familiar with Bynes so if you have liked her previous films ("What a Girl Wants" (2003) or "She's the Man" (2006)) then you should like her here. If you are not a fan of hers then I respect your opinion but think you're missing something, and you should probably also skip this.

"Sydney White" is everything that you want in a cute, sweet, feel good PG movie. I recommend it.

The story is not great, but I do find some of the jokes to be funny. I'm socially awkward myself, so that helps me appreciate the jokes. It's a guilty pleasure film.

Amanda Bynes is an enormously talented actress, and I've really enjoyed all of her roles in the past, especially in the fantastic "She's the Man." For that reason alone, "Sydney White" was a huge disappointment for me. The real reason for my dislike of this film is the poor use of characters. In a good fun teen comedy, its perfectly alright to have a cast of all fairly reality-based teen characters. In "Sydney White," this idea is thrown out the window.

Amanda Bynes makes a fine Sydney, but she is really lacking in a lot of what usually makes her sparkle as an actress. I blame this on the script, which makes her character too bland and restrained, and on the hair/makeup department, which gives her a detestable plastic look and an annoying hair style. The seven "dorks" that Sydney eventually befriends are far worse. They are so dorky that it's impossible to like them or even respect them as characters. They're essentially repulsive gag fodder. As is the story's "Prince Charming," who is completely unbelievable as a character and is about as cheesy as can be.

Perhaps the film's biggest star-to-be (with the possible exception of Amanda Bynes) is Sara Paxton, who's actually very good as the conniving Rachel Witchburn. It's just a shame that the script-writers didn't make her a bit more gray than black.

The plot is basically that of "Snow White." What kills it is that it is too blunt and obvious a re-imagining. The connections to "Snow White" are thrown at us so much throughout the film that they are ultimately annoying and overblown. Prince Charming is unrealistically charming, the "witch" is far too despicably witchy, the seven "dorks" are too dorky, and Sydney is just too pure of heart. Now, this is not to say that the movie is all bad. Though Bynes is forced down by the script, she still has her moments. As does Sara Paxton, who brings physical comedy to the max in her scenes. Sydney's room-mate, named "Dinky" is also great fun as a character. It's a somewhat funny film at parts that is ultimately just too cheesy and clichéd to recommend.

In our day and age, it's very difficult to find a truly funny film that is also fairly sweet and innocent. Having grown up as a fairy tale princess wannabe, I've seen my share of fairy tale spin-offs, and this has by far been the best one. I was almost afraid to watch this movie, seeing as it was PG-13 and that doesn't really mean anything anymore (could be clean, like Sydney White, could be completely raunchy). However, I was pleasantly surprised by its clever writing. Some may complain that it is too stereotypical with the cliques, but I would point out that the gorgeous Prince Charming is also a genuinely decent guy, not just Mr. Popularity as in most films. I mean, let's face it: fairy tales were pretty stereotypical to begin with. Evil queens, handsome princes, princesses in danger or in hiding, or regular girls becoming princesses. But that doesn't make it any less of a good story. Overall, I found it highly entertaining and terrifically charming. Truly heartwarming to a fairy tale fan like myself, and even to my dad, who decided to accompany me to the movie because he had nothing better to do--and believe me, it's not easy to entertain my dad with 'chick flicks'.

Predictable, maybe. But who really wants to see the evil witch win in the end?

Really good watch, would watch again, and can recommend.

A modern day re-telling of Snow White. Not an easy task to get a modern ensemble cast to be significant, but they do a good job for the characters being mostly socially awkward societal rejects.

Amanda Bynes pretty much carries the movie, but that's to be expected from a Snow White.

The fun twist is they went with a "vs the rich" trope against greek row instead of her being princess-like.

The movie is a lot of fun, and Amanda Bynes does a great job of competitive girl on the social battlefield as does Sarah Paxton.

Super Cute but it will degenerate your brain. Not recommend for adults.

I found this simple tale charming and entertaining. It was funny without filth. The cinematography was quite lovely in many spots. It was fun to see John Schneider in a mature role for the first time in a long while. I feel that Amanda is a lovely, talented young girl who did a good job with the role. All the geeks were comical and interesting in their own individual ways. The facial expressions of George were absolutely endearing and evoked hilarious laughter several times. I found myself wanting to bring them all home for a good meal! I especially liked the excellent life-lesson shown for all of our society and wholeheartedly recommend this film for everyone over the age of 12. Younger kids just won't get it nor enjoy it.

This movie is more suited for young teens. It's a teen retelling of Snow White. Tomboy Sydney White goes off to college and pledges to her mom's frat, which is run by the witch, Rachel. Rachel is jealous and kicks Sydney out. Sydney must go live with the 7 dorks whom live in the Vortex house. Sydney also meets a guy whose last name happens to be Prince. He is Rachel's ex and was in favor of tearing down the Vortex to build a Greek center. But after hanging with Syd and the dorks he realizes they aren't that bad and doesn't want to go ahead with the plan. There is also the student elections in which Syd decides to go up against Rachel. There are other things that are similar to snow white, like the looking mirror, the kiss from a prince, etc...

Amanda Bynes is charming on screen. She makes the character. It was amusing, but didn't really make me laugh.

FINAL VERDICT: I thought the idea was neat, but the movie was OK. I think younger people will like it more.

This movie is a rarity, genuine humor is displayed throughout the film without using sex jokes/raunchiness references. That's is what comedy films need to strive for which is clean wholesome humor unlike movies such as SuperBad, Borat, Wedding Crashers, and Knocked Up. I know it's difficult with today's society to come up with clean jokes with what is shown on television now days, which is why Sydney White deserves several rounds of applause. I can't even think of a college movie which does not have at least one dirty joke or being as wholesome as this film. According to an article Amanda is the one who told the writers to tone down the script and not make it raunchy. Amanda Bynes as the leading performer in this movie is phenomenal. She is hysterically funny as well as being cute as a button. Amanda is destined to have a long career in the comedy field since there isn't many actresses out there who can even "do" comedy. What Amanda have and not many other actors/actresses is her facial expressions. Her facial expressions makes the movie 10 times better. It's as if Amanda is two actresses wrapped in one.

I really like Amanda's interaction with the dorks, the scenes when they are all together...it's the best. Matt Long is charming as the prince. His type of character is rare in movies and in real life. He's handsome, funny, and do charity work. Amanda Bynes and Matt Long have great chemistry, makes me wish they will date each other in real life.

Cyrstal Hunt is funny as the airhead southern buddy of Sydney. The weakest link of the movie would be Sara Paxon, but she improves throughout the movie. There is some clichés in the movie, but what movie doesn't? Every movie borrows somethings from other resources. Another rare thing that this movie have would be that it actually teaches a great lesson which is to be yourself and not to conform.

It is fitting that the title character in Sydney White is defined from the beginning of the film by her awkwardness because the film, like the character, tends to begin every scene with a well-meant but inappropriate statement, then backtracks inadvertently making it worse and leaving the viewer in total confusion.

This scenario gets old quick. Now imagine a hour and a half of this, throw on the most predictable storyline imaginable; add some vague Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs references and Amanda Bynes blinking in wide-eyed puzzlement and you have Sydney White...for more of my review http://www.helium.com/items/1433421-sydney-white-review

I have seen Amanda and liked her in the movie "She's the man". That movie was also very good like this one. And both the movie has that especial content "Amanda". She brought so much of life into the characters she played in both the movies. She was so much convincing in both the movies it felt that she is same in her real life too, may be, cause I don't know.

This movie is real good with some of the famous and popular contents of teen movies like bitching, romance, mean girls etc. I like the humor of the movie. Other than Amanda I like Sara Paxton and some of the roomies of Sydney.

The story of the movie is very much like the fairy tale where there is a beautiful girl, waiting for her prince charming, entrapped by an evil lady. I'm not going to reveal more on the story cause of its predictability, yea the story is very predictable but still this the movie is good.