Get Over It (2001) / Comedy-Romance

MPAA Rated: PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, teen drinking and language
Running Time: 87 min.

Cast: Ben Foster, Kirsten Dunst, Melissa Sagemiller, Sisqo, Colin Hanks, Shane West, Zoe Saldana, Mila Kunis, Swoosie Kurtz, Ed Begley Jr., Martin Short, Carmen Electra, Coolio
Director: Tommy O'Haver
Screenplay: R. Lee Fleming
Review published September 9, 2001

The unfortunate thing about most teen comedies is that 99% of them are content to stick to a tried and true formula rather than tell a compelling tale of teen angst and heartbroken romance. I suppose it's ironic that so many use works of Shakespeare and the like for inspiration, as you practically have to go back hundreds of years for a tale of real teenage drama that isn't polluted by trendy music and toilet humor.

Stuck in this rut of bad teen melodrama is Get Over It, a visually impressive but poorly conceived teen comedy that would rather be the next in the American Pie series than this generation's Say Anything. The film follows a high school teen boy named Berke Landers (Foster, Liberty Heights) , who is suffering from the break up with his pretty girlfriend, Allison (Sagemiller, The Clearing). Allison has been snatched by the school heart-throb, Bentley "Striker" Lawrence (West, A Walk to Remember), who is quite the player around campus, mostly popular for being in his own teen pop crew (a la N'Sync). Berke is infatuated with getting Allison back, even trying out for the school play to to to get closer to her and soon the competition for love is on.

Director Tommy O'Haver (Ella Enchanted, Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss) may have a knack for nice visuals and a zestful energy that could have worked splendidly had the movie not been undone from so many other feeble areas. The primary flaw in Get Over It stems from the uninspired script that supplants genuine insight and wit for ridiculous slapstick and some of toilet humor so raunchy that I almost dry-heaved from moments that included Berke's almost landing face first into a steaming pile of horse manure only to have the same horse urinate all over his face, and late a disgusting scene involving vomiting in a party punchbowl only to have others drink the putrid concoction in bewilderment as to it's unique chunky texture.

Other weak areas include the cast, mostly in believing Berke, a geeky misfit, could get not one, but three hot babes fall for him, and a curiously bad attempt at a Brit accent by Shane West as the antagonist. Like other teen comedies, most of the cast is well into their 20s, and every adult in the film is the usual mix of simpleton Neanderthals and parents who try so hard to be hip that it serves only as more of an embarrassment. In the end, Get Over It may have some "punch" for the most undiscriminating of teen viewers, but most others will find the strange flavor not to their liking.

Qwipster's rating:

©2001 Vince Leo