Jawbreaker is *no* Heathers.<br /><br />If you watch Heathers, even for the dozenth time, it's amazing how easy the movie looks. Daniel Waters's dialogue was a wonderful rhythm that he could never repeat. Michael Lehmann's direction captured a mixture of black comedy and drama that he's never been able to repeat. It could be argued that nobody in the cast (with the possible exception of Winona Ryder) has ever been better. Watching Darren Stein's Jawbreaker makes you realize just how difficult it was for Waters and Lehmann to make their film, because in every way Heathers succeeds, Jawbreaker fails.<br /><br />Jawbreaker has nothing new to say about high school, nor about popularity, nor about violence in society. So if you eliminate any hope of subtext, you can also wonder why exactly it doesn't seem funny. Or why the finale seems random an unsatisfying. Or why there's no character development at all. The dialogue isn't neither as smart or as barbed as writer/director Darren Stein seems to think it is, nor is the colorful and sometimes appealingly campy direction really a redeeming feature.<br /><br />The characters are all one dimensional. Rose McGowan, as Courney Alice Shayne, was given more to do in the crappy "B" movie Devil in the Flesh. She's always watchable, but she's usually more interesting. Rebecca Gayheart is supposed to be the character the audience can identify with, but her "I remember when the dorky kids were my friends, back in fourth grade" story arc is just ripped off poorly from Heathers. Everybody's easy to look at, but none of the young actors is going to put this one prominantly on their resumes.<br /><br />A string of amusing faces from the past pop up to remind you of a litany of movies that this is not. William Katt makes you yearn for Carrie. Pam Grier makes you year for a campier film like Sheba, Baby or a better film like Jackie Brown. Hell, Carol Kane even makes you yearn for the relative pleasures of a mediocre movie like The Pallbearer.<br /><br />Jawbreaker isn't funny. It isn't original. And it isn't very good. But darned if it doesn't invite another viewing of Heathers. And that's never bad.