She's All That

As an undiscovered beauty who frequents open-stage night at the local performance-art club, her rack hidden under paint-spattered overalls, her chiseled face obscured by glasses, Rachael Leigh Cook is charming and sincere, and ultimately so is Prinze, whose character's realization that he's not as shallow as he'd thought is convincing. Read full review

As flicks go, She's All That ain't very much. But as high-school flicks go, this thing is a trite classic. [29 Jan 1999, p.C3]

Well, it's not that hard to predict how this comedy with a little emotional depth will end. And that's not such a terrible thing, because She's All That delivers a lot of charm and quite a few nice comic touches. [29 Jan 1999, p.68]

It tries to be an update of "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" crossed with "Pygmalion," but while it has some funny and even original moments, it's too predictable to be "all that." Read full review

The script, which needs not just doctoring and could benefit from a spell in the critical-care ward, is full of dress-up and put-downs, and comes alive only when Prinze or Cook are on-screen. In short, She's All That aspires to be Clueless. It succeeds in being clueless. Read full review

All that complexity backfires at about the midpoint, leaving viewers with a standard yarn about a popular guy who makes a grossly insensitive wager after his trophy girlfriend drops him. After that, it is all a case of "been there, done that." [29 Jan 1999,p. E3]

What starts as a bright and bouncy time-waster that at least borrows from the best of its genre-defining ilk -- "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", "Clueless", "Carrie", "The Breakfast Club" -- eventually stumbles into sappy message-movie territory. [29 Jan 1999, p. 09E]

Visually, the film is skin and bones. Iscove and cinematographer Francis Kenny ("A Night at the Roxbury") have the most fun with "Grease"-like dance numbers in the finale. [27 January 1999]

Despite being largely uninspired, the dialogue is peppered with enough profanity and salacious comments to keep the undiscriminating interested. Read full review

About one idea short of being an excellent teenage romance. As it stands it's a pleasing but routine effort. Read full review

She's All That is essentially a formulaic comedy, but it has enough glimmerings of originality and wit to make you wish it were much bolder and funnier than it turns out to be. Read full review

The tempo of the film does well to cure the unlikely romance with just the right amount of anxiety and the leads — especially Cook, who is wonderfully promising here — create an earnestly heartfelt chemistry. Read full review

She's All That isn't mindless, just techniqueless...What's on the screen says they aren't yet up to speed on making feature films. Most of the actors mumble while the script lurches from one sketchy notion to the next. All the same, She's All That offers insights into life as it is lived, or at least filmed, in Southern California. [29 Jan 1999, p. W1]

Dialogue is often stilted (and fraught with unlikely outbursts of speechifying) and the ending hardly soars, but Cook, a near-ringer for the young Winona Ryder, has a shyly appealing personality and O'Keefe makes a villainess you'll love to hiss. [29 Jan 1999, p.L24]

Amid all the cameos (Anna Paquin, Usher, Lil' Kim), only Prinze, who has the ethereal, gentlemanly quality of a young Anthony Perkins, gets enough screen time to really make an impression. Read full review

The most worrying thing about She's All That is its message. The "ugly duckling" (specs, dungarees, art-lover) must conform (she gets a makeover and the boys notice her "bobos" for the first time) to fit in. Read full review