John Tucker Must Die

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John Tucker Must Die…
…But he doesn’t. And neither does his movie. Kate (Brittany Snow) is a cute but sort of plain looking girl. She spends most of her life with the self opinion that she is invisible to others. Judging from the clever few opening minutes of the film, it appears so. Her family who consists of she and her mother Lori (Jenny McCarthy) move around a lot because Lori only seems to date Losers, whom Kate nick-names all “Skip�. Not unlike “The Perfect Man� with equally breathtaking mom and daughter duo of Hilary Duff and Heather Locklear.

Kate inadvertently ends up in the middle of a fight between Heather, Beth and Carrie played convincingly in order by Ashanti, Sophia Bush, and Arielle Kebbel. The fight ensues as these three girls from completely different cliques are thrown together due to a fall of a grossly overweight and surprisingly out of shape role model PE teacher, (Nancy J. Lilley) not from central casting. During the resultant scramble volleyball game the cliques collide and our three antagonists realize they all have something in common. Namely John Tucker (Jesse Metcalf), cool, attractive, athletic, rich, popular, dude. They’ve all been naively dating him oblivious of each other. And because teen movies cannot exist without a girl fight; they start one. Kate gets drawn in- they don’t notice her-and in anger asserts herself by talking some sense into these girls. Her hard earned lessons, learned via her mother, bring some sober rationality into the conversation and the next thing you know she is a stool pigeon for the plan of the century. Destroy John Tucker for breaking all their hearts: But how to do it?

The plots they devise to bring John down are at once ingenious and complete failures.
Mostly because John is so loved by the school that when he is compromised by embarrassing pranks they become in vogue because…well it’s John Tucker!

Funny woman Betty Thomas writes a funny satirical about growing up in America. Like her humor everything is over the top. The girls’ plots are overblown. John Tucker is really rich. Everyone on the basketball team, can slam dunk a basketball. Despite the over abundance of props, Betty Thomas has keen insight into how today’s high school girls and boys think. “John Tucker Must Die� is full of great sight gags and clever lines. As you can expect, there is some suggestive language that disappoints me as a grand parent of young kids. But I also work in the shipping business, I have heard worse.

The lessons learned from “JTMD� are that revenge is never sweet. Getting even is never even. It is not satisfying nor is it all that effective. Another lesson well taught here is that getting to know someone better, tends to make them appear much different than first impressions or rumor might conclude. A third lesson that I enjoyed was that if you are yourself you will find new depth in other people, sometimes yourself. The important lesson is to look outside you and serve other people. Kate gets into this whole mess by trying to help the 3 scorned females. But she is made of pretty good stuff and we see a convincing transformation.

My favorite character was John’s brother Tom (Penn Badgley) he is insightful, funny, kind of a loner but emotionally a cut above the standard high school kid. He and Kate are a lot alike (independent) and Tommy helps Kate see her own hypocrisy as she falls into her role as bate for the demise of John. Kate becomes more popular as she lures John deeper into the plot. She finds herself changing into what she hates most about her new former enemies, Heather, Beth and Carrie. Pretense doesn’t become her and she realizes it almost soon enough. Tommy is the catalyst for Kate’s redemption, and her change makes a better man out of John after all; at least a bit.

If you walk a way with anything after seeing this film it will be the simple yet important lesson: “honest is the best policy�. Pretty good film and not just for teeny boppers.

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—Overview
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections