10 Things I Hate About You Review
by Homer Yen (homer_yen AT yahoo DOT com)April 6th, 1999
10 Things about “10 Things I Hate about You”
by Homer Yen
(c) 1999
1. Anybody who is familiar with some of Shakespeare’s work is probably familiar with Taming of the Shrew. “10 Things” is a lighthearted adaptation of the Bard’s tale about a younger sister who yearns to go out but is forbidden unless her craggy and highly opinionated sister first dates. In this film, the two siblings are Bianca, a wholesome girl with a tender smile and Cat, a cute but spiteful witch who instills fear in a majority of the guys at their high school.
2. This movie begins unpromisingly as we are introduced to the various high school cliques consisting of white Ziggy Marley fanatics who talk with Jamaican accents, future ivy-leaguers who seem like grandsons of Thurston Howell III, and even cowboys who are shown twirling their lariats. Satirizing cliques is perfectly fine; however, these are included as mere sight gags, and the movie seems to have ample opportunity to reintroduce these cliques into even funnier scenes, but they just sort of vanish.
3. Even the faculty is no less odd including Guidance Counselor Ms. Perky, who spends her time writing erotic fiction and Mr. Gordon who is a black teacher that raps Shakespeare sonnets. I’m not sure whether the great Bard would have been more shocked by his raps (which do have a smoothness to them) or knowing that they made this movie based on one of his tales.
4. We meet up with Cameron is a likable yet vapid sort of guy who is taken by Bianca’s beauty. He has to overcome two formidable obstacles. One is that she can’t go out unless Cat also begins to date. The other obstacle is the vain, Chachi-look-alike (from Happy Days) student that also wants to go out with her.
5. To get Cat to go out, they secure the services of Michael, the school desperado, who probably has what it takes to tame her. Inevitably, he will fall for his prey and she will do the same. It is also inevitable that she’ll realize that she was the product of a wager and that there will be 10 minutes of film time while she ponders intensively before she forgives and forgets.
6. Cat is actually very well-spoken. In fact, for sophomores in high school, some of the dialogue is incredibly grown up. They seemed extremely savvy about life and love. Yet, despite their verve, nothing of any importance really gets said. How odd.
7. I can’t say that I really liked anything about this movie. However, I can’t really say that I disliked it either since it is about kids in high school trying to find love, and let’s face it…we didn’t really know all that much when we were in high school either. But here’s a sweet moment that stood out. Michael, to get Cat’s attention, bribes that school marching band to play while he serenades her over the PA system. Nice touch, but everything else was just ho-hum high school silliness.
8. What was a shame was that some of these kids show real promise, but it’s hard to break out of the gravitational grip of a high school comedy. They will eventually graduate to bigger and better things.
9. Thinking about it more, I believe that I just tend to view high school romance genres with a sort of detachment. It seems as if so many have come out recently (Can’t Hardly Wait and She’s All That, just to name a few), that it’s like watching the same movie over and over again. So, it’s not that this movie is bad. It’s just that it’s too bad that so many of these films have come out.
10. The lowdown is this. “10 Things” starts off as silly fare, but there are some subtly charming moments, and for the most part, it’s relatively painless fluff.
Grade: C
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