‘Get Over It’

A music video tacked on at the end during the credits creates a false euphoria that may almost make you forget the preceding 90 minutes of meaningless nonsense.   [PG-13]

By: Kam Williams

Kirsten Dunst stars in Get Over It.

   Get Over It is not just another tacky teen comedy. It’s another tacky teen comedy with a twist. As the closing credits roll, we’re treated to a "can’t miss" music video duet performed by Sisqo ("The Thong Song") and Vitamin C ("Graduation"). The recognizable remake of "September," an up-tempo Earth Wind & Fire chartbuster, is guaranteed to send everybody spinning and grinning up the aisle.
   The video backsells the dismal film by featuring the entire cast frolicking in the foreground with unbridled excitement. The false euphoria of the transition almost made me forget the preceding 90 minutes of meaningless nonsense. They should end every dud with a dazzling dance video. It reminded me of how Will Smith’s wonderful title track to Wild Wild West closed out that fiasco.
   The humorless production forced me to consider the possibility that Get Over It might not be a comedy. The mirthless movie stars Ben Foster as Berke, a "boy most likely" cruising through his senior year of high school. His longtime girlfriend Allison (Melissa Sagemiller) throws him over for newcomer, Striker (Shane West), a transfer student who also happens to be a famous pop singer.
   Down-in-the-dumps Berke drags his butt around school like a dog with worms, and it seems nothing can shake him out of the doldrums. Not his basketball teammate, the diminutive Dennis, played by pop starSisqo. Not his best-friend, Felix, portrayed by actor Colin Hanks, Tom Hank’s son. Not his obligingly understanding parents, played by Swoosie Kurtz and Ed Begley Jr.
   Berke only stops licking his wounds when his eyes lock on Kelly, a curvy coed majoring in blonde hair, played by Kirsten Dunst. Kelly also happens to be the little sister of an unappreciative Felix. Berke forsakes the basketball team for the drama club, forsooth, to be nearer Kelly.
   Complications ensue when his ex, Allison, and her hunk, Striker, also try out for the school production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The ever-overacting Martin Short steps on everybody else’s lines as Dr. Desmond Forrest-Oakes, the flamboyant drama teacher.
   The formulaic fare relies on vaguely familiar clichés lifted out of the teensploitation handbook. There’s the running gag about Felix’s dog, which is in heat. There’s cameo appearances courtesy of Kylie Bax and Carmen Electra. There’s the keg party promoting underage alcohol consumption to excess. There’s the accidental ingestion of regurgitation and other forced bodily function gags.
   It didn’t take long to figure out that this flick wasn’t for me. I need a subtext more complicated than Kirsten Dunst prancing about in belly-revealing costumes waiting to get noticed. I’m not sure who would care about a storyline that fails to convey any urgency.
   When I asked a ticket taker whether teens were coming out to see this film, he said, "Nobody’s coming to see this movie except you." Enough said.
Rated PG-13 for sexual situations, adult language, male nudity and intentional infliction of incessant titillation.