Review of You Again (2010) by Fdt44 — 16 Aug 2011

Let's play a game I'd like to call "Word Association:" "She's the Man," "The Game-Plan," "Race to Witch Mountain," and the made-for-tv 'Lifetime' special "Wright v.

Wrong;" any reactions? Do the words brainless. emasculating, flat, pulseless, insipid, stale, dull, enervating, and cinematic decadent come to mind? If so, you might be familiar with Mr. Fickman's recent work.

One of his latest being yet another Disney-rom-com-meets ABC Family-Oxygen flatliner that tries to sneak in some praise with the likes of a few veteran actresses (Weaver and Curtis-oh and who could forget Betty White).

But don't get your hopes to high yet, every director has a motive, and Fickman isn't any different---these women are casted for a reason. As the film progresses (or dissipates further into fatuousness), these gals serve as the final impediment of what seems like a continuing ensemble of nails in the coffin.

So, worst case scenario you see the movie to assuage your "Alien" - "True Lies" - "Golden Girls" nostalgia. As for some of the other castings---Kristen Bell in particular---acting appears almost foreign to her in this film.

I don't know if she was just looking for a quick payday or what, but I haven't seen her more "out of" her character than she is in "You Again." Half-baked, unattentive, uninterested, ill-conceived delineation of a PR-promotee whose high school unfortunates come to meet her once again.

The premise, although some-what intriguing at first, follows close behind the "way overdone" genres of Hollywood today, so much that one might mistaken pieces of the screenplay for another; plagarism in moviemaking is satisfactory.

..all right...COPY + PASTE...yes, now I have a fully-functioning 90 minute rom-com! Now, let me throw in some pathetically selected cameos, a rendition of "Glee" in a hospital, and causeless catfights and you have "You Again.

" Almost forgot...slapstick humor---made just for you. Verdict: bouyant, lightheartedness that fails to asservate any sort of palpable feeling or pathos; heavily reliant on drollery, slapstick, con-melodramma, and hackneyed substance.