| John Tucker Must Die | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Betty Thomas |
| Produced by | Bob Cooper Michael Birnbaum |
| Written by | Jeff Lowell |
| Starring | Jesse Metcalfe Brittany Snow Ashanti Sophia Bush Arielle Kebbel Jenny McCarthy |
| Music by | Richard Gibbs |
| Cinematography | Anthony B. Richmond |
| Editing by | Matt Friedman |
| Studio | Landscape Productions Dune Entertainment Major Studio PArtners John US Productions |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) |
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| Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | United States Canada |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $18 million |
| Box office | $68,824,526 |
John Tucker Must Die is a 2006 American high school comedy romance film, directed by Betty Thomas. The film is about a trio of girls (played by Arielle Kebbel, Sophia Bush, and Ashanti) who plot to break the heart of manipulative basketball star John Tucker (Jesse Metcalfe) after they learn he has been secretly dating all three and pledging each is "the one". They recruit cute wallflower Kate (Brittany Snow) in their scheme to publicly humiliate the cad. Released in North America on July 28, 2006. The film reached number 3 in the US and number 1 in Australia.[clarification needed]
Contents |
Plot [edit]
The movie begins with Kate (Brittany Snow) discussing her mother Lori's (Jenny McCarthy) series of bad relationships which always causes the family to move to a new town. She and her mother move to a new town and Kate gets a job as a waitress. While at work, she sees popular local boy John Tucker (Jesse Metcalfe) on dates with three different girls: Carrie (Arielle Kebbel), a chronic overachiever; Heather (Ashanti), who is a sassy, aggressive head cheerleader; and Beth (Sophia Bush) a promiscuous vegan activist. Kate learns from a co-worker that he dates girls from different cliques at his school so that they never interact and convinces the girls who he dates to keep their relationships secret.
One day in gym class, Kate, Carrie, Heather and Beth end up on the same team for a volleyball game. During the game, Carrie brags about being with John Tucker, and the girls learn about his scheme. Carrie, Heather and Beth begin fighting and Kate tries to break up the fight, only to land them all in detention. Later, Kate is enlisted to help in the retaliation against John Tucker. In the meantime Kate becomes friends with John's brother Scott (Penn Badgley), better known as "The Other Tucker". The girls' initial attempts to undo John (making people believe he has genital herpes and undermining his confidence by giving him estrogen) backfire as John manages to use them to his advantage. After he breaks up with all three girls, they agree that breaking his heart is the ideal revenge. They then enlist Kate to be the heartbreaker.
Kate joins the cheerleading team in order to get John's attention and the girls give her advice on how to act around John and spy on the dates using surveillance equipment. Kate and John go on a series of dates, the first of which at a bonfire at the beach. Kate is unprepared after John asks to take her home and Beth intervenes to teach her how to kiss. However, John arrives, forcing Beth to hide in the back of his Land Rover. At her house, Kate manages to buy Beth time to escape by kissing John, with Beth's skirt being ruined in the process.
The next date is a romantic boat ride, and Kate and John have a good time together. Beth later notices that Kate is starting to fall for John. To counteract this, Carrie tapes John bragging to his friends in the locker room, saying he'll be scoring "more than baskets" at the away game, and shows the tape to Kate in order to get her to snap out of it. The girls try another plan to embarrass John Tucker at a hotel on the night of the away game. Kate seduces John on a video-chat and tells him to put on a woman's thong and climb out of his room and into hers. He is misled and climbs into a teacher's room and becomes the laughingstock of the school. John again uses this to his advantage, starting a fashion trend.
Meanwhile, Kate's mother and Scott both discover the plan and lament the change in Kate's behavior. Afterward, Kate tells John that she heard about what he said in the locker room about her. John makes amends by giving her his watch and asking her to be his girlfriend. Kate tells Heather, Carrie and Beth that she wants out of the plan, as whether they are dating or plotting to destroy John Tucker, it is still all about him.
At John's birthday party, the tape the girls made of John's destruction is played, and Kate reveals the entire plot. Heather, Beth, and Carrie defend her after a guest throws his drink at Kate. Still, John Tucker is unfazed, and the party devolves into a cake fight.
A few days later, John and Kate agree to be friends, and John resolves to be honest, telling his new girlfriend about his other girlfriend. Scott, happy that Kate confessed, becomes her lab partner again, and it is hinted the two will begin dating. Kate is now good friends with Beth, Carrie, and Heather. Kate finishes saying, "as for the girl who made John Tucker fall in love, well, she's a legend."
After the credits, Kate warns viewers at home wanting to try this that destroying a man has consequences, and the camera pans to several male teachers bending over to grab some papers, all wearing thongs. In a mid-credits scene, some high school students in Tokyo, Japan are seen goggling over the picture of John wearing female thongs.
Cast [edit]
- Jesse Metcalfe as John Tucker
- Brittany Snow as Kate Spencer
- Arielle Kebbel as Carrie Schaeffer
- Sophia Bush as Beth McIntyre
- Ashanti as Heather Straham
- Penn Badgley as Scott Tucker
- Jenny McCarthy as Lori Spencer
- Kevin McNulty as Basketball Coach
- Patricia Drake as Coach Williams
- Chelan Simmons as Crying Waitress
- Taylor Kitsch as Justin
- Nicole LaPlaca as Molly
- Samantha McLeod as Holly
- Amanda Crew as Hallway Girl
- Steve Bacic as Skip #1
- Dean Wray as Skip #2
- John Cuthbert as Skip #3
- Aaron Dudley as Skip #4
- Marc Menard Skip #5
- Dan Payne Skip #6
- Amber Borycki as Jennifer
- Meghan Ory as Jill
Reception [edit]
Box office [edit]
In its opening weekend, the film grossed a total of USD$14,276,534, ranking third in the U.S. box office results for that weekend. As of November 2, the film grossed $41.9 million in the United States and Canada. The film made a total of $68,824,526 worldwide.[1]
Critical response [edit]
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 26% with an average rating of 2.7/10 based on reviews from 140 critics. The site's general consensus is that "This derivitive teen comedy tries to go for cute when it could use more bite."[2] On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 reviews from film critics, it has an average score of 41 from the 27 reviews, which indicates "Mixed or average reviews".[3]
Angel Cohn from TV Guide gave the film a three stars rating out of four explaining, "Leaving aside the fact that not one member of this teen picture's cast appears remotely young enough to be in high school, veteran director Betty Thomas' light revenge comedy is surprisingly entertaining, if less than original." Cohn concluded, "Teen comedies are notoriously predictable, and screenwriter Jeff Lowell isn't out to rock the genre boat, but his smartly written dialogue and the infectious charm of the cast, particularly Snow and Metcalfe, add up to a winning combination."[4]
Jeannette Catsoulis of the New York Times wrote that the film is "unforgivably clueless about teen culture" and "can't even sustain the courage of its girl-power convictions." Catsoulis was also critical of Metcalfe's "unconvincing" performance, writing that he musters "fewer expressions than a Botox infomercial."[5] Michael Medved gave John Tucker Must Die two stars out of four, calling it "slick, stupid and slightly sleazy," and that at the half-way mark, the plot collapses. He added that Jenny McCarthy, in a supporting role, "...is notably better than the rest of the cast."[citation needed] James Berardinelli of Reelviews also disliked the film. He gave it 1.5 stars out of 4, saying "The gulf is vast between what the studio wants us to think John Tucker Must Die is and what it really is. The marketers and publicists would have us believe this is a dark, edgy teen comedy about a band of two-timed girls taking revenge on the school's biggest hunk. Unfortunately, Betty Thomas' film is neither dark nor edgy (although it occasionally tries masquerading in those categories), nor is it particularly funny." He goes on to mention "The movie may be able to bamboozle a few teen female fans into multiplexes, but it's hard to imagine any of them – even those who swoon at the sight of Jesse Metcalfe – labeling this as better than forgettable. And for anyone outside that demographic unfortunate enough to endure John Tucker Must Die, the memory will be too painful to fade quickly."[citation needed]
Jenny McCarthy's performance in the film earned her a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Supporting Actress.
Home media [edit]
The DVD was released on November 14, 2006.[6]
References [edit]
- ^ "John Tucker Must Die". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com.
- ^ "John Tucker Must Die (2006)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved March 30, 2012.
- ^ "John Tucker Must Die". Metacritic. CNET Networks. Retrieved March 30, 2012.
- ^ Cohn, Angel (July 28, 2006). "John Tucker Must Die: Review". TV Guide. Retrieved March 30, 2012.
- ^ Catsoulis, Jeannette (July 28, 2006). "John Tucker Must Die". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-12-31.
- ^ "John Tucker Must Die : DVD Talk Review of the DVD Video". Dvdtalk.com. 2006-11-14. Retrieved 2012-08-14.
External links [edit]
- Official Website
- John Tucker Must Die at the Internet Movie Database
- John Tucker Must Die at Rotten Tomatoes
- John Tucker Must Die at Metacritic
- John Tucker Must Die at Box Office Mojo
- John Tucker Must Die at AllRovi
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