BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM (U.S VERSION!) (She's The Man (DVD))

Member Name: Thecharmedones

Product:	She's The Man (DVD)
Date:	22/04/06 (302 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hilarious in places !

Disadvantages: A few too many cliches and vomit - worthy slushy bits !

Hello all! This week I went to the movies for the first time in ages. I thought I was going to see Ice Age, but my friends changed their minds at the last minute and we ended up seeing the quirky US comedy 'She's the Man' instead, apparently inspired by 'Twelfth Night'. I had very little clue what to expect and it certainly was a surprise! Without giving too much away, here is what it's about!

~~The Plot~~

Viola Hastings (Amanda Bynes) is a talented footballer who lives for football. Or Soccer as it is called over there. She lives with her country-club loving mother and her twin brother Sebastian, an aspiring rock musician. Something of a tomboy, Viola is the star player of Cornwall high school girl's soccer team and dates the captain of the boys' team.

However, horror of horrors, she discovers that the girls' team is to be sidelined in favour of a Lacrosse team and so she decides to try out for the boys' team instead. Sadly, the male sexist pig of a sports coach (Boo Hiss!) informs her that she could never be good enough to play at the same level as the boys; who also find the idea highly amusing. Even Viola's boyfriend thinks it's a ridiculous idea and after his patronising comments, she breaks up with him and vows to show them all that girls can play in the boys' league.

Viola comes up with the rather harebrained scheme of impersonating her twin brother (who is supposed to be starting at a new boarding school) with the intention of joining the boy's soccer team there and beating her school's boys in the upcoming match. While her brother is helpfully out of the way, sneaking away himself to London to pursue his music career, she enlists her friends to help her with her transformation. Donning a wig and side burns, she struggles to perfect male mannerisms, voice tone and subject matter in order to succeed in her plan.

Unfortunately, when she arrives at Illyria high school, she discovers that hiding her lie and fitting in is much harder than she imagined, particularly when she meets her rather tasty roommate Duke and becomes the object of his crush Olivia's desire! Aside from this tricky problem, she has to cope with the punishing soccer trials in order to make the team. Training with the boys and their drill sergeant coach (Vinnie Jones), turns out to be much more grueling than she had anticipated. How will it all end?

The concept of this film does sound rather outrageous, I admit, but the plot is straight out of Twelfth Night, including character and place names and love triangles, so you were warned. It's pretty much what you get if you cross Twelfth Night with Bend It Like Beckham, even mentioning the man himself in one scene. Add a smattering of American teen mush and you have this film. It maybe completely bonkers, but I found it to be very entertaining nonetheless.

POSITIVES:

1. Excellent performances from the lead characters, particularly Amanda Bynes, who had the extremely challenging role of alternating between girl and boy.

2. The film was extremely funny in places, particularly when using male and female stereotypes and the resulting gender confusion that resulted!

3. Very fast paced and witty dialogue throughout.

4. A good attempt to update an old story with a modern setting.

NEGATIVES:

1. Too many cliches for my liking. It stuck rigidly to the US teen movie format with the token black friend, gay friend and geek.

2. While there are parts of this film that have you laughing out loud, there were also some rather excruciatingly cringe-worthy bits which let it down and put it on a par with other mediocre teen flicks.

3. There were several implausible scenes and some of the football rules in the end game were somewhat loosely interpreted, I think!

4. Too much romantic mush! I like romantic films as much as the next person, but do bear in mind this film is aimed at teens, so it gets a little squirmy! (Cheer up Scrooge!)

~~Notable Performances~~

Amanda Bynes as Viola Hastings

20 year old Amanda Bynes has been acting since she was 10 years old. By 13, she wrote and starred in her own comedy skit show, 'The Amanda Show' on the Nickelodeon channel. Her acting career seems to have blossomed over the years and she is now a popular teen comedy actress in the U.S. In my opinion, she is perfect for this type of film. She has excellent timing, bags of confidence and really has done a terrific job in this film. The role of Viola Hastings was a tough one, because she had to spend a large part of it dressed as boy, complete with false eyebrows, wig, muscle suit and binding (Ow!). She made a marvelous and hilarious effort of playing a girl dressed as a boy, who was struggling with her emotions! Bette Midler is one of her inspirations and if Amanda carries on perfecting her craft, I can see her career heading in a similar direction. Top.

Channing Tatum as Duke Orsino

Let me start by saying: Ladies - this guy is a hottie! Ok, Ok enough perving from me! As well as not being bad to look at, Channing Tatum is also a very good actor. He started off as a male model for companies like BOSS and is successfully making the difficult transition into serious acting, being tipped for big things. After seeing his portrayal of the sports jock-but-sensitive heart throb in this film, I agree that world domination will follow shortly. Oh, and his cheek muscle tightens adorably when he's tense...SORRY!

Vinnie Jones as Coach Dinklage

Ex-football bad boy, Vinnie Jones, is well cast as the boot-camp style coach at Illyria. He does a very reasonable job of playing the loud-mouth bully character that he is well used to. I just don't know where he gets his inspiration!

~~My Verdict~~

I have given this film 4 stars for the sheer madness of it all. It was done with such confidence and is so upbeat and fun, that I really can't give it anything else. It's not un-missable, but it is worth watching for the laughs alone and were it not for the little blips and inaccuracies, it would be excellent.

To summerise, it is a not-to-be-taken-seriously daft riot of a film. Very funny in places; irritating in others. But when all is said and done, after all the critical analysis, the only question I need to ask is "Did I enjoy myself for the 1hr45mins duration of the film?"
Well yes, actually, I did! Nuff said.

Running time: 105mins
Certificate: 12A
Bad Language: None that I can remember, just some references!
Sex/Nudity: Some strong references and plenty of innuendo!

NOTE: This is a film only review, so no moaning about the lack of DVD features! : )

Till next time,

Thecharmedones x

Summary: Twelfth Night meets Bend it like Beckham