Typically, "teen movies" star good-looking young actors as teenagers who fret over sex, relationships, popularity, their appearances... all the things that teenagers worry about. And despite their obvious non-Oscar-caliber scripts, some of them are quite enjoyable, both for the eye-candy as well as the funny adventures the characters have.<br /><br />However, this semblance of a movie fails miserably at being enjoyable in the least. I don't see how this movie got by its screenings at all (which probably explains why Miramax didn't even allow screenings for critics).<br /><br />The plot, while obviously overdone, is quite capable of producing an entertaining movie: boy meets girl, boy dates girl, boy and girl have a relationship, girl cheats on boy, boy breaks up w/ girl, boy wants to get back together w/ girl, and they're together in the end. It's been done, I'm sure it can be done again, but not this time.<br /><br />My biggest complaint about this movie (among many others) is how scripted the dialogue comes out. There are 3 second pauses in between lines, and they're not for effect. It's almost as if the actors forgot their lines, are trying to think of them, and they left the cameras rolling. The movie seemed to have been rushed to get completed as soon as possible. It's almost as if first-time writer/director Kris Isacsson didn't have time to have more than one take for each scene, in order to capitalize on Prinze's marketability as soon as possible.<br /><br />I feel very sorry for the supporting cast in this film, as their talents have been wasted in this film. I really like Julia Stiles: she's pretty and has a very "real" persona, not some superficial, overdone glamour girl. Selma Blair is reduced to a slutty whore with no character whatsoever. And Henry Winkler plays his television chef character w/ brilliance.<br /><br />The only redeeming quality of this movie is a brief clip of a TV show Henry Winkler's character wants to develop w/ his son (Prinze): a cooking show based on the TV show "Cops" that would be called "Cooks", a chef-meets-SWAT team hybrid where two cooks would enter people's homes, hold them at gunpoint, and make dinner for them in their own kitchen, complete w/ shaky videotaped footage of their sessions.<br /><br />Overall, avoid this movie at all costs. Don't even bother renting it when it comes out on video. Spend your 1 1/2 hours doing something more entertaining (I recommend talking to insects, which incidently, the main character in this film finds himself doing).<br /><br />3 out of 10