BOYS AND GIRLS (2000)

BOYS AND GIRLS
(No Stars)
Rating: PG-13
Length: 94 minutes
Director: Robert Iscove (She’s All That; From Justin to Kelly)
Writers: Andrew Lowery (Simon Sez; Nothing) and Andrew Miller (Simon Sez; Nothing)
Starring: Freddie Prinze, Jr., Claire Forlani, Jason Biggs, Amanda Detmer, Alyson Hannigan, Heather Donahue, Lisa Eichhorn

“Boys and Girls” is the type of a movie where the guy and the girl- who are “just friends” even though the screenplay let’s us all know in a very obvious way that they are meant for each other- go to a club and a random song comes on (in this case Apollo 440’s Fatboy Slim knock off “Stop the Rock”) and they go on the dance floor and everybody in the whole club has some sort of a synchronized dance routine for it that would have taken a solid month to get down, yet they all are in perfect rhythm (except of course, the goofy boy who has to be taught like he’s a moron for not knowing it in first place). “Boys and Girls” is also the type of movie that during the end credits runs a scene that was presumably originally intended to be in the feature where the Jason Biggs character runs into some Victoria Secrets models in the changing area of one of their shops and they all start farting and try to get him to fart because it “turns them on”. The movie is one of the most painful film experiences I’ve ever had. I couldn’t find one single redeeming quality in it. The cast is awful- particularly Claire Forlani (thank God her career died), the characters are unlikable, and the screenplay is so wretched, unfunny, and moronic that it’s a wonder the two guys that wrote it- labeled as the “Drews”- could figure out how to use their hands to type it to begin with. Freddie Prinze Jr. and the above mentioned Forlani star as Ryan and Jennifer. They first meet as pre-teens on an airplane where nerdy Ryan frets about the flight and Jennifer announces loudly to him that she is on her period. They meet years later and somehow instantly remember each other at a high school football game. Jennifer asks Ryan out on a date and he freaks out and tells her that they aren’t the “right fit” or something stupid like that. Wouldn’t you know it? They end up at the same college and run into each other again, and then again and again. They finally decide to become friends and they give each other romance advice (Ryan briefly dates Jennifer’s roommate) not realizing that they are truly “meant for each other”. They are each supplied with sidekicks. Ryan’s roommate, Hunter (Biggs), who has an identity crisis and just wants to get laid and Jennifer’s roommate, Amy (“Saving Silverman”’s Amanda Detmer), who is also unlucky in love and has a crush on her. It’s the type of movie where even though the characters are in a college filled with thousands of other peers, they somehow stick to only having one sole friend each. The movie tries to be insightful about love and life and fails miserably. Prinze and Forlani have zero chemistry and not only get on each other’s nerves through most of the movie, they have the same effect on the audience as nails on a chalkboard. Biggs and Detmer are so one note and annoying that the ploy ending set up for them is fitting and completely predictable. If the movie has any value whatsoever it’s that it effectively killed the Freddie Prinze romantic-comedy genre (save for the one last hurrah “Head Over Heels”- which was also terrible). The recent and limp, “Jack and Jill vs. the World”, tried to revive it and thankfully went away quietly and unnoticed. People will grow nostalgic for the late ’90’s when he was a movie star, but instead of having fond memories of his movies, I think they will just wonder why they ever liked him to begin with.

Download Soundtrack MP3s:
Apollo 440- Stop the Rock
Vertical Horizon- Everything You Want

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