Oh, gosh! Another lame teen comedy. I didn't see that coming! This movie wallows in predictability, never once deviating from the extremely tired formula of the thousands of other teeny-bopper flicks. You can (literally!) figure out the whole plot structure simply by reading the synopsis.
The film starts out as a slapstick comedy. The silly, cartoonish, far-fetched slapstick fails over and over again, and fails miserably in one overlong sequence in which Burke (Ben Foster) takes a hot date from New Zealand out to a restaurant. She happens to be clumsy, and all hell breaks loose. Think the disastrous restaurant sequence from "Woo" and multiply the running time by 3 and you have one stupid, overlong gag with a piece of (computer-animated--yes that's right) beef flying around. Come on, even farce needs a touch of reality. And we have an embarrassingly recurring gag involving a dog humping everything in sight. How original!
Speaking of an absence of originality, we have Swoozie Kurtz and Ed Begley, Jr. (two prestigious actors--one of those instances where you can't help but ponder "WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING IN THIS PIECE OF CRAP?!!!!") as--guess what?--the stupid, gullible parents. The same gullible Mom and Dad team we've seen in the past teen flick and the one before that and the one before that. Except their gimmick is they actually condone their son's (Foster) decadent behavior, even when he gets stripped and hung on a series of leather straps at a nudie bar. I'm surprised Tom Hanks doesn't disown his son. While he's doing such great films like "Forrest Gump" and "Cast Away" his son is doing lame teen flicks like this and "Whatever It Takes." What happened to the tradition of actors like Kirk Douglas and Lloyd Bridges, whose sons take after their fathers' success and become great actors themselves? Tom, teach your son Colin right. You're not doing your job. Of course, to spice things up a little they decided to add Martin Short to the cast. Unfortunately, even he can't save the day. He's handed an unfunny role and only musters a few laughs out of his desperate ranting and raving as a flambouyant theater director. This measures up to his throwaway role in the other disastrous comedy "Jungle 2 Jungle." I guess after his talk show got cancelled he figures, "I'll take whatever role is thrown at me." As for Sisqo--love the "Thong Song." You're a great musician, but stay away from celluloid! You deliver your lines like a malfunctioning robot. Not to mention he's playing a TEENAGER in this film. Yeah right! Ben Foster was terrific in Barry Levinson's underrated coming-of-age drama "Liberty Heights." Here, he seems as bored with the film as we do. And as for the presences of Kirsten Dunst and Carmen Electra (who graces the screen for about three minutes), they didn't help out much in the acting department but served as great eye candy.
The second half of the film is a boring compilation of the SAME EXACT CRAP WE'VE SEEN DONE OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN IN THESE STUPID TEEN ROMANCES! Burke, whose initial plan was to get Allison (Melissa Sagemiller) back spends a lot of time with his friend's (Hanks) sister (Dunst). The romance blooms. And we're forced to sit through the same tired scenes that help the film reach the end of its ultimately predictable arc. The only reason why I'm not going into any details is because that would (for some crazy reason, technically) be considered a spoiler and I want people who haven't seen this piece of garbage to read my comments, so they won't be subjected to the same torcher as me.
The only reason why I'm giving this movie a rating of 3 is the spectacular opening. Why is it that so many movies start with great openings, then let us down completely? We start with Burke getting his things out of Allison's house after breaking up with her, and we have a big musical number where he walks down the street carrying his box of stuff while all the townies are behind him, dancing and singing along to the Captain and Tenille's "Love Will Keep Us Together." We also have a brief appearance by pop superstar Vitamin C. It's a great scene that really gets your energy going. Unfortunately, it's all downhill from there and the upbeat rhythm comes to a screeching halt. The film has a sense of style to it, but it's the same style used in all the previous teen flicks. The camera movements, the music cues, everything. I'm not impressed.
Roger Ebert said it himself: A good movie is never too long and a bad movie is never too short. This is raw proof. "Get Over It" runs at a total of 86 minutes, yet I'd rather watch "Braveheart" for a whole three hours than sit through five minutes of "GOI."
My score: 3 (out of 10)
The film starts out as a slapstick comedy. The silly, cartoonish, far-fetched slapstick fails over and over again, and fails miserably in one overlong sequence in which Burke (Ben Foster) takes a hot date from New Zealand out to a restaurant. She happens to be clumsy, and all hell breaks loose. Think the disastrous restaurant sequence from "Woo" and multiply the running time by 3 and you have one stupid, overlong gag with a piece of (computer-animated--yes that's right) beef flying around. Come on, even farce needs a touch of reality. And we have an embarrassingly recurring gag involving a dog humping everything in sight. How original!
Speaking of an absence of originality, we have Swoozie Kurtz and Ed Begley, Jr. (two prestigious actors--one of those instances where you can't help but ponder "WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING IN THIS PIECE OF CRAP?!!!!") as--guess what?--the stupid, gullible parents. The same gullible Mom and Dad team we've seen in the past teen flick and the one before that and the one before that. Except their gimmick is they actually condone their son's (Foster) decadent behavior, even when he gets stripped and hung on a series of leather straps at a nudie bar. I'm surprised Tom Hanks doesn't disown his son. While he's doing such great films like "Forrest Gump" and "Cast Away" his son is doing lame teen flicks like this and "Whatever It Takes." What happened to the tradition of actors like Kirk Douglas and Lloyd Bridges, whose sons take after their fathers' success and become great actors themselves? Tom, teach your son Colin right. You're not doing your job. Of course, to spice things up a little they decided to add Martin Short to the cast. Unfortunately, even he can't save the day. He's handed an unfunny role and only musters a few laughs out of his desperate ranting and raving as a flambouyant theater director. This measures up to his throwaway role in the other disastrous comedy "Jungle 2 Jungle." I guess after his talk show got cancelled he figures, "I'll take whatever role is thrown at me." As for Sisqo--love the "Thong Song." You're a great musician, but stay away from celluloid! You deliver your lines like a malfunctioning robot. Not to mention he's playing a TEENAGER in this film. Yeah right! Ben Foster was terrific in Barry Levinson's underrated coming-of-age drama "Liberty Heights." Here, he seems as bored with the film as we do. And as for the presences of Kirsten Dunst and Carmen Electra (who graces the screen for about three minutes), they didn't help out much in the acting department but served as great eye candy.
The second half of the film is a boring compilation of the SAME EXACT CRAP WE'VE SEEN DONE OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN IN THESE STUPID TEEN ROMANCES! Burke, whose initial plan was to get Allison (Melissa Sagemiller) back spends a lot of time with his friend's (Hanks) sister (Dunst). The romance blooms. And we're forced to sit through the same tired scenes that help the film reach the end of its ultimately predictable arc. The only reason why I'm not going into any details is because that would (for some crazy reason, technically) be considered a spoiler and I want people who haven't seen this piece of garbage to read my comments, so they won't be subjected to the same torcher as me.
The only reason why I'm giving this movie a rating of 3 is the spectacular opening. Why is it that so many movies start with great openings, then let us down completely? We start with Burke getting his things out of Allison's house after breaking up with her, and we have a big musical number where he walks down the street carrying his box of stuff while all the townies are behind him, dancing and singing along to the Captain and Tenille's "Love Will Keep Us Together." We also have a brief appearance by pop superstar Vitamin C. It's a great scene that really gets your energy going. Unfortunately, it's all downhill from there and the upbeat rhythm comes to a screeching halt. The film has a sense of style to it, but it's the same style used in all the previous teen flicks. The camera movements, the music cues, everything. I'm not impressed.
Roger Ebert said it himself: A good movie is never too long and a bad movie is never too short. This is raw proof. "Get Over It" runs at a total of 86 minutes, yet I'd rather watch "Braveheart" for a whole three hours than sit through five minutes of "GOI."
My score: 3 (out of 10)