John Tucker Must Die, a harmless
confection of teen entertainment and one of the bigger box office surprises of
last summer and early fall. Buoyed by savvy, his-and-hers commercials on Comedy
Central and smart trailer placement on The
Devil Wears Prada — which was a big July hit for 20th Century Fox — John Tucker turned a tidy profit in
pulling in more than $40 million domestically, and stands to do well on DVD now
that star and Desperate Housewives
hunk Jesse Metcalfe is back on the small screen to remind younger viewers of his
shirtless screen time in this film.
(Metcalfe, above left) is immensely popular — the captain of the basketball team, and
dating three girls (
Sophia Bush, above right) at once, none of whom know about each other. Wallflower Kate (Brittany
Snow) witnesses John’s duplicity, and conspires with the girls to get revenge
through a series of schemes both somewhat shrewd and familiarly lowbrow (i.e., replacing
John’s bodybuilding powder with estrogen).
Brady Bunch Movie, Private Parts,
28 Days) is skilled in capturing
comedic rhythms in a smooth, bright, unfussy manner, and she certainly does that
here. She’s also given a script that, if completely functional and doughy on a
macro level, also really gets right the balance between spurned hurt and sassy,
empowered flippancy. Ergo, you have a story of femme-centric revenge that will
play to the same sort of 13-18-year-old set that helped make Mean Girls a hit, but a movie that also
delivers a few nice helpings of attractive ladies cavorting about in skimpy
outfits. For teen guys, that’s quite easy
to “suffer.”
is presented in a decent transfer, though there’s an irksome bit of edge
enhancement present, especially in the movie’s first two-thirds. Both a full
screen cut and a 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation — the latter preserving
the aspect ratio of its original theatrical presentation — grace this disc, as
do the original and an “extended cut” of the movie, which clocks in at a
whopping 10 indistinguishable seconds longer. Audio arrives in an English
language Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound track which amply captures the movie’s
rather meager dialogue demands, but pops nicely with its bouncy song
interludes. Spanish and French Dolby digital 2.0 surround sound tracks are also
available, as are optional English and Spanish subtitles.
Yearbook,” “On the Rebound”) will please the teen-core set in their
gum-snapping buoyancy, but don’t offer much in the way of replay value. Metcalfe
provides a four-minute on-set tour, though, which is a nice touch. Thomas sits
for a full-length audio commentary track with her editor, Matthew Friedman, and
along with a few anecdotes about the cast they also fairly impartially assay
the film’s place alongside other, like-minded teen flicks. Two deleted scenes
and a dating quiz round things out, alongside the obligatory gallery of trailers.
C (Movie) B- (Disc)