After its release on Aug. 27, on Netflix, He’s All That has created quite a stir on social media and in news outlets. Director Mark Water’s remake of She’s All That involves a gender-swap and an upgrade in the moral department for when Addison Rae’s character, Padgett Sawyer, needs to makeover her school’s biggest guy “loser” to salvage her sponsorship deals that pay the bills. Compared to She’s All That, the not-so-popular girl’s makeover is based on a shallow bet to create a school prom queen and beat the main character’s ex-girlfriend. After being rated TV-14 for its slight language and that one nicely placed expletive we all remember from the movie, it has soared to Netflix’s number one movie spot for more than a week since its broadcast.
While the film maintains a slightly different but mirrored storyline to its original, it does run into some technical mishaps, such as Rae’s hand completely disappearing into a now- obvious greenscreen during her solo at the pool party and the audience seeing her fail to hand out party flyers to her classmates. The Alligator’s Alexis Carson even says that Rae’s character’s ex “looks too old to be in college let alone high school.” The biggest fault this adaptation film had was living up to the expectations set by She’s All That fans, as Rae’s lack of experience is evident when her acting in emotional moments was not as successful as some hoped.
Some critics on Rotten Tomatoes have backed the teen movie, saying it’s “a sweet little end of summer sorbet” with a refreshing script that doesn’t overplay the classic yet nostalgic teen rom-com storyline. Others claim it lacks charm and depth under the surface of celebrity status and social media remarks, describing the film as “uninspired, inconsistent and uninteresting.” The summer 2021 film received a 30 percent green splat, or rotten tomato, review and a 24 percent audience score overall. However, there were more than just technical difficulties and adult-looking high schoolers involved in generating these subpar ratings.
Most critics, like NY Times’ Devika Girish, simply stated that the movie’s underlying theme “be yourself” was trampled by too many sponsorships such as a makeup brand, EOS, which was used by Rae at the beginning of the film. Distractify Magazine listed not-so-subtle examples, including Pizza Hut, Smartfood Popcorn, Old Navy and KFC. While advertising in movies has not been a new trend surrounding Hollywood, the promotions used in this $20 million movie made it clear that the main star was not the character Padgett but the overly done product placements.
All in all, He’s All That is a solid feel-good movie with a cast of both new and old actors (shout out to Matthew Lillard and Rachael Leigh Cook!) that come together for a more modern take on the “not-too-hot” teen romance genre. Streaming only on Netflix and running at one hour and 31 minutes, this film might not meet your classic 90’s teen rom-com movie standards but is sure to make you laugh at least once!
Want to see more HCFSU? Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube and Pinterest!