MOVIE NIGHT TRAFFIC LIGHT

Donner’s Company (Distributor: DreamWorks)

$?

Andy Fickman (Reefer Madness: The TV Movie Musical)

Lauren Shuler Donner (X-Men, You’ve Got Mail, Constantine), Ewan Leslie (no credits), Jack Leslie (no credits)

Ewan Leslie (no credits), Jack Leslie (no credits), Karen McCullah Lutz (10 Things I Hate About You, Legally Blonde), Kirsten Smith (10 Things I Hate About You, Legally Blonde)

Amanda Bynes – Viola/Sebastian (The Amanda Show, What A Girl Wants, TV: What I Like About You, Robots)

Channing Tatum – Duke (Coach Carter, Havoc) 

Robert Hoffman – Justin (You Got Served, Quintuplets, MTV’s Wild ‘N Out)

Laura Ramsey – Olivia (Lords of Dogtown)

She’s The Man is a wonderful little adolescent comedy in which the darling of Nickelodeon, Amanda Bynes, will delight fans, entertain audiences, and confuse teenage boys everywhere about their sexual orientation.

 Viola’s (Amanda Bynes) girl’s soccer team is canceled for lack of funding.  When she tries to convince the coach and her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend (Robert Hoffman) to let her play on the boy’s team, they laugh her off.  She gets a brilliant idea when her twin brother, Sebastian, decides to secretly head to England for two weeks and play some gigs with his band and asks Viola to cover for him with the family and at his new boarding school.  She decides to masquerade as him, try out for his school’s soccer team and show everyone that a girl can play with the boys.  Things get complicated when Sebastian falls for her roommate, but her roommate is attracted to Sebastian’s lab partner who likes Sebastian but decides to flirt with Sebastian’s roommate to make Sebastian jealous and Sebastian tries to convince her roommate to go for her sister Viola (really her) who is being pursued by her ex-boyfriend.  In the middle of all of this Sebastian breaks up with the real Sebastian’s girlfriend who becomes crazy jealous that some other girl wants him while Viola has to dodge her mom’s attempts to make her into the perfect debutant.  Not to worry, the moral of this story is that it will all work out in the end.

She’s The Man is a cute and comical film for adolescences; and, of course, adults who like cute and comical.  The movie’s simple concept creates a complicated and surprisingly interesting storyline that, although completely unbelievable, is fun to follow.  Amanda Bynes is a talented and spirited actress who perfectly portrays a teenage girl posing as a teenage boy, which works wonderfully in the context of the film.  The fact that no one would really mistake her for a boy isn’t to say her acting skill is lacking, but rather it’s a testament to her natural femininity and the director’s excellent understanding of the nature of his film and its audience.  The supporting characters were equally well cast, providing rich character interaction and superb onscreen chemistry.  Regardless of genre or target audience, She’s The Man is a very well made movie that most should find entertaining and enjoyable.

On the Movie Night Traffic Light on a scale of GREEN meaning “Go – it’s a must see”, YELLOW meaning “Caution – it’s okay” and RED meaning “No - stop don’t do it."

We rate The Pink Panther GREEN.  Go – This movie is sweet and entertaining.