Synopsis
John Tucker (Jesse Metcalfe) is a so-called ladies man. He enjoys seeing more than one girl at once. The way he gets away with this is by dating girls from different cliques. This finally catches up with him when three girls (Ashanti, Sophia Bush, and Arielle Kebbel) find out he was dating them all at the same time. They get an idea from Kate (Brittany Snow), the new girl in school, to get revenge on him. They come up with different plans to get revenge on him, but none of them work. The only thing the plans do is make him look better. When he finally dumps them all, they decide to send Kate in as a decoy to beat him at his own game. They try to change her so John could fall for her. The point of the plan is to get him to fall for her so she could dump his. They want him to know how it feels to be played and dumped.
Pros
The plot seemed pretty interesting. From watching the trailer, I was curious to see the things that they would do in order to get revenge on him. I was also glad that the movie wasn’t that long. It moved at a fast pace. Watching the way their plans unfolded was funny. They refused to give up no matter what happened with their plans.
I liked how race wasn’t a factor in this movie. One of the three girls is played by an African American woman and it was never a factor that she was dating a Caucasian man. Even though it’s 2006, interracial dating can still be frowned upon. This movie didn’t focus on that. Ashanti played a colorless role.
In my opinion, Kate had a redeeming quality. Even though John deserved to get some type of revenge done to him, she felt that what the girls were doing was wrong. It was her idea to do it, but she realized they were going too far.
For the most part, the acting was pretty good considering it’s a teen movie. No one’s going to go home with any Oscars, but the acting was okay. Someone could have walked away with a Razzie award for their performance (see Cons below to find out who deserves this honor).
Cons
Kate’s story gave me a case of déjà vu. It ripped off the Perfect man. Her mother wanted to move every time she broke up with a man. Anyone who saw The Perfect Man, knows that this is the plot of the movie. It was done better in the Perfect Man because it was the basis of the movie. It was a mere plot device in this movie.
As I mentioned in the Pro section, someone could have walked away with a Razzie award for their performance. This honor goes to Ashanti. I found it hard to get into her scenes. Her acting was pretty bad in this movie. She has done one other movie (Coach Carter) and her inexperience spoke volumes. For that matter, Jesse Metcalfe could also be a recipient for the Razzie. He has only had two major roles before this movie (Daytime television’s Passions and Desperate Housewives). His acting was better than anticipated, but that’s not saying much for him. I think a role like John Tucker should have gone to someone with more acting experience. Actually, I think he and the actor who played his brother should have switched roles. I think Scott (Penn Badgley) did a better job in his role and he should have been the lead.
The writers tried to make John look like the victim while the girls looked like monsters. He was the one two timing the girls, but he still found ways to come out on top. They come off looking bad for just wanting to pay him back for hurting them. It’s hard to believe that a woman (Betty Thomas) directed this. There’s even a point where they started to become obsessed with their revenge on him. This is where I feel the manipulation began. He was no longer the bad guy. He became the victim. Kate’s mother (who was dating a lot of men who left her) even felt sorry for John after a while. Does that make any sense?
Possible spoiler warning: Please don’t read if you don’t want to be spoiled.
After everything the girls did to John, I feel that he learned nothing from the experience. You would think that after everything they did to him, he would have learned to treat women better. You would have to see the end of the movie to know what I’m talking about.
I have some questions about the movie
How come Jenny McCarthy is playing Kate’s mother when she is only about 33 or 34? The actress playing Kate is too old to play her daughter.
Why was the movie called John Tucker Must Die when he never dies? Wouldn’t a better title have been John Tucker Must Pay? Guess it doesn’t have the same ring as him dying.
Why did the writers think that we would buy Ashanti playing a teenager? The others looked too old to be in high school too, but she really looked too old for her role. It might have been more believable if they were playing college students.
Why didn’t the girls just break up with John when they found out what he did to them? Was John the only guy in school? Was it really hard for them to find other boyfriends? Right. There would have been no movie if they moved on from him.
Recommendation
Overall, I think it’s a good movie. It’s clearly targeted to the teen audience, but I think others can enjoy it too. If you can look past it’s flaws, I think you may like the movie.
