John Tucker Must Die…but he doesn’t. And neither does his movie. Kate (Brittany Snow) is a cute but plain looking girl. She spends most of her life believing she is invisible to others. Judging from the clever few opening minutes of the film, it appears she's right. She and her mother Lori (Jenny McCarthy) move around a lot because Lori only seems to date losers; Kate nick-names them all “Skip" (not unlike The Perfect Man with equally breathtaking mom and daughter duo Heather Locklear and Hilary Duff.

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 three girls from different cliques are thrown together by a grossly overweight and surprisingly out of shape PE teacher, (Nancy J. Lilley). During the resultant  volleyball game the cliques collide and our three antagonists realize they have something in common. Namely, John Tucker (Jesse Metcalf)--the cool, attractive, athletic, rich, popular dude. They’ve all been naively dating him. And because teen movies cannot exist without a girl fight; they start one. Kate gets drawn in--they don’t notice her--and angrily talks some sense into them. The lessons learned via her mother bring 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 their hearts: But how to do it?

The plots they devise to bring John down are at once ingenious and complete failures. Because John is so loved by the school, 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 overabundance 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. There is some suggestive language that disappoints me as a grandparent, but I also work in the shipping business, so 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 makes them appear 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 and sometimes in yourself. The important lesson is to look outside you and serve other people. Kate gets into this whole mess by trying to help the three 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, a loner emotionally but 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 bait 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. See I Corinthians 15.13 (Bad company corrupts character). 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.