John Tucker Must Die – Sweet Revenge Edition:
Extended Cut (2006/Fox DVD)
Picture:
B- Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: C
When
popular school guy and athlete John Tucker (Jesse Metcalfe of Beyond A Reasonable Doubt) is caught by
four female classmates in lies about who he is dating, they begin to get into
catfights until they start to question want is really going on and decide to
team up in Betty Thomas’ odd teen comedy John
Tucker Must Die (2006). It is sold
as an edgy revenge comedy, but is surprisingly light-weight in this respect.
I
purposely watched the extended cut and found that there is hardly anything here
except some silly nudity that could bring this near an R-rating. The real implication is that people will be
mean and do ugly things to each other, something to the film’s credit it does
not. However, except for minor funny
things ands a strange resolution that makes no sense if you think about it,
there is nothing to see here.
At best,
the female cast including little-knowns Brittany Snow, Sophie Bush and Arielle
Kebbell are fun, while we get very unwelcome appearances by the ever-annoying
Jenny McCarthy (whose bad work would be known as “McCarthyism” if the term was
not already connected to one of the few nightmares worse than she) and singer
Ashanti proves once again that she is one of the worst actresses of her
generation not long after desecrating The
Muppets Wizard Of Oz. We actually
had to review that one.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is better than the odd 1.33 pan &
scan version, with better color than expected and fairly good composition. Either cinematographer Anthony B. Richmond,
A.S.C., B.S.C., and/or Thomas seem oddly interested in Mr. Metcalfe’s body in a
sort of spoof of fetishistic scopophilia.
His body is sort of built, but sort of Play-Dohish (DVD definition
limit?) at the same time. Is this a
spoof of male sexuality? Hard to tell,
but it is just another odd aspect of the film.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is lacking surrounds and is dialogue based, as
well as sometimes problematic in how it was recorded in a few spots. The combination is good.
Extras
include a Music Video, dating quiz, brief piece with Metcalfe on set, three
featurettes and feature length audio commentary by Thomas and Editor Matthew Friedman. The hype ad says “don’t get mad, get even”
and we say “don’t get mad, don’t watch this”!
The shorter PG-13 cut is included and unless this is some kind of must,
just skip it.
- Nicholas Sheffo
