On DVD: 'I Love You Beth Cooper'

'I Love You Beth Cooper' (PG-13) *1/2

Writer: Larry Doyle based on his novel
Director: Chris Columbus
Starring: Hayden Panetiere, Paul Rust, Alan Ruck

With the recent passing of John Hughes, "I Love You Beth Cooper" made me dislike it even more. This movie based on a book is a weak John Hughes clone that is very dumb, crude and messy. The movie concerns a high school boy who makes his Valedictorian speech at graduation and calls out all the kids who made his life hell in school. He also tells the lead cheerleader Beth Cooper that he loves her. The boy and his best friend (who every one thinks is gay) hooks up with Beth and her pretty and popular two friends and then cruise the town looking for parties. They are also being chased by Beth's boyfriend who is a muscular jock type who the boy had bad mouthed in his speech. This leads to chase scenes, slapstick and a lot of unfunny situations. What amused me was that this movie tried to come off as raunchy and tries to push it's PG-13 rating. Sorry but there is a movie called "Superbad" that knows how to get it done and I think is the standard bearer of this type of movie. This movie rips off "Sixteen Candles", "Breakfast Club", "Adventures in Babysitting", "Say Anything", "Superbad" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and very badly. The director is Chris Columbus who is a Hughes protege and had directed "Babysitting", "Home Alone" and the first Harry Potter movie. He is not one of my favorite directors and he should have known better than to make an embarrassing Hughes rip off.