He's All That

 

He’s All That is a modern remake of the 1999 hit She’s All That. In the gender swapping re-creation Padgett Sawyer, played by TikTok star Addison Rae, is a social media influencer and popular girl at school who takes a bet that she can transform the anti-social and nonconforming classmate, Cameron Kweller, played by Tanner Buchanan, into the next prom king.

I liked that the plot attempted to reinvent the original script with the gender swap. They were also very tech heavy which was appropriate for the modern age. I also appreciated that they tried to pay homage to the original in a number of different ways, including the soundtrack and an almost exact timeline of events. The problem was that the script was corny, not very funny, and I wasn't a fan that in a couple of parts it was also verbatim to the original.

Regarding casting, I enjoyed that they brought back Matthew Lillard and Rachael Leigh Cook but I wish that they would have reprised their original roles. I was also disappointed that more of the original cast didn't come back. For the new group, I wasn’t a huge fan of Kourtney Kardashian’s part. She didn’t actually showcase any acting skills, she might as well have just done a cameo vs playing a character. Addison Rae and Cameron Kweller had some awkward moments and lacked chemistry. The casting director and writers also dropped the ball when it came to properly showcasing the diversity of their characters. Not only was there less people of color than the original but they were also lazy in the writing by stereotyping the minorities. The Black people were the villains or the backup dancers and the Asian people were the nerdy tech gurus or the sidekick friends. They all had minimal character development and hardly any lines.

In the end, this movie was not even remotely as good as the original. It felt too gimmicky and predictable. It also didn't give me the nostalgia I was looking for. Therefore, I came away feeling like this was a lackluster attempt and not worth watching again.