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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Pleasant Surprise, October 26, 2009
With the characteristics listed that led to its PG-13 rating you might think that I Love You, Beth Cooper would be piece of crap. But, the trailer had hooked me so I checked it our anyway. I was quite pleasantly surprised.
Denis Cooverman (Paul Rust) is the valedictorian of Buffalo Glenn High School. He is obviously a smart kid for in addition to his class standing as he has been accepted into a premed program at Stanford University and he is the captain of the debating team. On the downside he isn't very good looking, isn't an athlete, and isn't very successful with girls. He has had a long time crush on the head cheerleader, Beth Cooper (Hayden Panettiere), but has been too shy to speak to her. Besides she has a boyfriend in the army who perhaps just might be special forces material.
Denis has a very sexually confused friend, Rich (Jack Carpenter), who everyone else thinks is gay. Rich puts Denis up to telling Beth what he really thinks during his valedictory speech. This was clearly out of line. While he is on a roll he also tells what he thinks of everyone else including Beth's boyfriend who is on leave for the event, the school bully, and the schools rich [...]. Finally he suggests that his Rich embrace his presumed sexuality.
This leads to several reactions the most encouraging for Denis is that Beth speaks to him and "lets him live." Denis manages to invite her to his graduation party before being assaulted by her very angry boyfriend. Being spared serious bodily harm by the intervention of the school principal, Denis and Rich go home to their party which seems to be only the two them. Then surprisingly Beth with her two sidekicks Cammy (Lauren London) and Treece (Lauren Storm) actually show up to the party. Denis and Rich descend into complete dorkiness and probably the whole incident would have been a joke for the girls. But, then Kevin (Shawn Roberts) and his two army buddies crash the "party" resulting in the two nerds and the three hot girls spending an evening together, mostly on the run from the army guys.
While much of the action is typical of teen flicks, Beth Cooper manages to capture something very special. One begins to realize that Beth's life as one of the coolest girls in Buffalo Glenn isn't really all it's imagined. She is smart enough to realize that it over. While graduation marks the beginning of a upward tend in Denis's life, it will mark beginning of a downward slope for Beth's. This brought home in a scene in which the girls go back to the school and do their cheerleading routine for the Denis and Rich. Panettiere portrays Beth's sadness convincingly in this scene.
The teen antics are overplayed as is typical in films of this genre. In real life Beth and Kevin would be arrested for the excess depicted. They would be sued for more than they could payoff in a long time as well. But, It's all in good fun and I'd chalk it up to comedic license. The same goes for the bedroom scene envolving Rich with Cammy and Treece. Perhaps he really isn't gay after all!
Some have criticized the movie based on the implausibility Beth being temporarily interested in nerdy Denis. However, Beth isn't stupid even if she is far from the idealized dream girl Denis had long fantasized . Her relationship with Kevin was clearly deteriorating. Perhaps she saw a chance to move up to a future doctor. Cetainly her life the popular girl in high school is over and she knows it. Beth turned out to be quite a bit different than Denis has imagined but the reality had its own merits. But, she really does need to learn to drive safely if she wants to be around for the ten-year reunion!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
dry humor, but has its moments, July 10, 2010
Wow, talk about a really big coincidence. I actually went to high school with a girl named Beth Cooper, and she sort of resembles the Beth Cooper character in this film both in appearance and personality! That's just creepy, haha.
Anyway, I Love You, Beth Cooper features some of the most predictable and "been there, done that" teenage humor I've ever seen. This movie brings absolutely NOTHING new to the table in the genre of silly, pointless teen comedies. However, it's not a total loss.
I love the scene with the guy going crazy and towel smacking the school bullies to shreds in a locker room, haha. A classic moment. This scene alone elevates the rating up an additional point from a 2 out of 5, to a 3! He whips 'em up good and hysterically!
Besides that, there's a LOT of predictable humor. For instance, one evening a group of teenagers decide to go cow tipping. Yes, you know what happens. They can't actually tip the cows because something goes wrong. In this case, one kid steps in poo poo and then has to deal with the cows chasing after him and his friends- this may be considered humor for the sake of the movie, but trust me, in real life it's NO laughing matter when a bunch of cows are chasing after you. I can certainly relate to THAT freaky moment!
Anyway, another good moment of the storyline is the very beginning when, during a classmates graduation speech, he actually reveals all kinds of personal information about himself along with admitting his love for a female classmate of his by the name of... yes you guessed it, Beth Cooper. Talk about embarrassing! I can relate to this though- I remember doing similar things in 12th grade and didn't care how embarrassing it was because it was my final year.
Anyway, don't expect a groundbreaking comedy, but you'll probably find yourself laughing on a few occasions.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Tepid Teen Vehicle for Ms. Panettiere, February 28, 2011
"I Love You Beth Cooper" is a comedy film starring "Heroes" ingenue Hayden Panettiere in the title role. The film's pitch may have sounded great on paper-- Nerdy high school senior Denis Cooverman (Paul Rust) declares his years-long crush on popular cheerleader Beth on their graduation day, invites her to a party that no one is really coming to, only to have her show up, and all sorts of wacky misadventures ensue.
Indeed, it apparently sounded good on paper since the screenplay was adapted by the novel's author Larry Doyle. That being the case, the excuse of having an unsympathetic interpreter doesn't apply here. The characters are, of course, stereotypes, but for the most part they're not particularly entertaining stereotypes: Denis, despite his temporary boldness in his valedictorian speech, comes across as relentlessly wimpy for the entire rest of the film; the same goes for his best friend Rich (Jack Carpenter), a film-quoting geek who can't help but give the IMDB-rundown on every line he clips from a film character; it's not until the end when this character finally gets some backbone..
As the title character, Panettiere's Beth Cooper is the typical vapid and so-popular-i'm-really-depressed Dream Girl that populates these kinds of movies. An aside about a deceased sibling is vaguely touching but it comes far too late to justify why Denis would pine so long for someone who quite literally didn't know he existed until that day. Ms. Panettiere is as cute as a button, but she really isn't given much to do here. Beth's best-pals are even less-developed. Beth's rageaholic (and apparently drug addict!) boyfriend Kevin (Shawn Roberts) slightly resembles a young Bill Paxton. Alan Ruck, an alumnus of the conceptually similar "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" plays Denis' wants-to-be-cool dad (champagne is made available for Denis' party), though it's surprising that no lines from "Bueller" were clipped here for comic effect.
before the end of the film, entire houses are casually destroyed, reckless drivers menace the road, and nary a police officer is called, apparently.
Chris Columbus has delivered a number of entertaining films over the years, including the first two Harry Potter films, and the tangentially similar "Adventures in Babysitting". Unfortunately, he stumbles badly here.
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