Movie Monitor: Whatever It Takes

Whatever It Takes

2000 Comedy

In this teen-oriented romantic comedy, Ryan Woodman (Shane West) is a socially inept high school senior whose idea of a good time is practicing his accordion, while Chris Campbell (James Franco) is a BMOC football star (and intellectual lightweight) at the same school. Ryan is hopelessly in love with Ashley Grant (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe), who is beautiful, popular, and entirely out of his league, while Chris has a serious crush on Maggie (Marla Sokoloff), a pretty but bookish friend of Ryan's. Chris and Ryan realize that they're in a position to help each other, and through a complicated arrangement of phone calls, e-mails, and double dates, they try to work out a system by which each guy will be with the girl of his dreams -- though things hardly turn out the way anyone expected. Produced under the title Got to Be You, Whatever It Takes also features Julia Sweeney and Colin Hanks. more..

Director: David Raynr

Starring: Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, Shane West, Marla Sokoloff, Manu Intiraymi, Aaron Paul

30 Reviews 1 Awards

Reviews

Didn't work this time, David. Maybe next season.

Mike Clark - USA Today

11 May 2013
Populated by ersatz versions of stars who, in this case, are fairly vanilla to begin with.

Owen Gleiberman - Entertainment Weekly

11 May 2013
It involves teenagers who have never existed, doing things no teenager has ever done, for reasons no teenager would understand. Of course, it's aimed at the teenage market.

Roger Ebert - The Chicago Sun-Times

11 May 2013
Pretty lame stuff. Already it seems to be passing with the speed of light into the limbo of utterly forgettable "who-will-I-take-to-the-prom?" movies.

Jay Carr - The Boston Globe

11 May 2013
So derivative and crass that it's far more entertaining to try to think of the dozens of films it's ripping off than it is to take any of it at face value.

- The Chicago Tribune

11 May 2013

Awards

Film - Choice Comedy

Teen Choice Awards (2000)

Lists

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