Director; Mark Waters. Starring; Addison Rae, Tanner Buchanan, Rachel Leigh Cook. Rated TV-MA. Color. 88 Minutes.
When I was like 13 or 14 years of age in the 90’s the teeny bopper movies were what everyone was talking about in 1st period. Same thing for every generation. For me there were the classics such as “American Pie” or “Clueless”. There were also the obviously terrible ones like “Can’t Hardly Wait” or “Never Been Kissed”. Most tend to fall in the mediocre section, but did have a level of mindless entertainment value for the target audience. 1999’s “She’s All That” is in that mediocre area. When I was of that age, I enjoyed the story of the popular jock falling in love with the outsider over a bet. The new sequel “He’s All That” goes along with the same format, only flips the guy/girl roles. I gotta say, for its target audience the movie is kinda fun.
“He’s all That” follows the same format of the original, but injects a large element of social media that this TikTok generation obsessed with followers and likes can relate to. Hey. every generation has its thing. Addison Rae plays Padgett Sawyer. Padgett is the most popular girl at a preppy school in SoCal, and also a hugely influential TikTok video maker with such huge influence that she could possibly get a contract with Khloe Kardashian, who plays herself. The only down to earth part of this princess’s life is her mother. Rachel Leigh Cook, who was the girl in the original film. Mom is a hard working nurse named Anna, doing everything she can to make sure her daughter has all of the best opportunities. In a school filled with kids that live in multi-million dollar homes, they live in the world of the middle class.
Padgett is part of the big three popular chicks that also include Quinn (Myra Molley) the smart and kind one, and Alden (Madison Pettis) the schemer you cannot trust. Padgett is dating the biggest douche in the school. Jordan Van Draanen (Peyton Meyer), a name that would literally be the first to come up on a google search for a-hole. He never wears a shirt, is always rapping with his boys in front of the school, and has a contract for his first music video for a song that is incredibly offensive to Hip-Hop. To celebrate the shoot, Padgett wants to surprise him when she walks in on him banging one of the back-up dancers. All of this is caught on her TikTok channel, causing shame in the superficial world.
In order to get back her followers, the girls decide to challenge her to find a guy that in no way would ever be prom king and turn him into the most popular kid in school. Enter Cameron Kweller (Tanner Buchanan). Cameron is one of those outsiders because he chooses to be. Anything concerned with popularity he finds meaningless. All he cares about is taking photos with his fathers camera and hanging out with his only friend Nina (Annie Jacob). The loner is Padgett’s challenge.
Obviously when Padgett approaches Cameron he wants nothing to do with her. She finds out that the young man loves horses and so she starts a relationship by scooping up manure with him in order to convince the kid to teach her how to ride. Cameron is still skeptical, but he’s getting there. Padgett continues to try and get Cameron involved and with Nina’s encouragement the introvert just might be coming around. Padgett invites the two to a high end karaoke pool party that finds Cam and Nina completely out of place. But when Padgett is being embarrassed on stage Cameron jumps up there and they rock out.
Next comes the makeover. After all the whining about dress shopping and getting a makeover, Cameron walks out, to of course the “Kiss Me” song from the original, and he looks like one tasty dish. At the next party all the ladies are like DAMN! And then yes all the cliche stuff takes place. True love, then they split, then Padgett learns the error of her ways, and the couple gets back together of course.
Look, “He’s All That” is nothing special. There are a few good moments, including a fight where Cameron beats up Padgett’s douchey ex in front of everyone. The two leads Rae and Buchanon have good enough chemistry. Way too many dance numbers, but I did get a kick out of how hilarious the villain character is dancing so ridiculously in front of the school in between classes. But hey, if you’re bored on a Sunday but don’t really need to think, “He’s All That” is solid mind candy.
Suck Factor: 4 out of 7 (7 Means Your Movie Really SUCKS!)
The SUCK FACTOR. How it works. We have flipped the script on the standard ratings system. If you have made a masterpiece like say “The Godfather” you receive 0 SUCKS! If you have made complete garbage such as a Michael Bay movie, you receive 7 SUCKS!
Greg Squared Films 