Taking pages out of John Hughes’ playbook, 10 Things I Hate About You falls just short of cliche as we forget that much of what made Hughes’ work so clever was that it invented its own cliches–as this film does. While it does subject to the usual idiot adults and predictable plot, there is a lot more depth here than the average teen comedy.
Although the chemistry between the leads and their respective partners is impressive, I did ask a little bit more from director Gil Junger. While I know he is more familiar with the world of television, I still expected him to pay a little bit more attention to minute details–which resulted in a bit of sloppiness from time to time.
The script has its ups and downs comedically, but as a whole this is a fun and enjoyable movie. It doesn’t rely on one-liners to carry the weight of its humor and it doesn’t waste time with subplots.
But although the laughs slow down at times, there aren’t really any eye-rolling jokes. And wisely, there are hints of self-satire carefully scattered throughout.
With a killer soundtrack and clever bits, you tend to forget that the premise isn’t groundbreaking. You have to judge a movie based off of its rewatchability, and this one is definitely one that I would watch again.
The Twizard 