Drive Me Crazy (1999)

Often when a teenage actress reaches her twenties she's anxious to leave off the schoolgirl roles and try something different, so one might have thought it would take something special to get Melissa Joan Hart ("Sabrina...," "Clarissa...") back in the classroom again. I can't believe that this movie was it, though. It appears to be an attempt at the "sophisticated" style of teen dramedy made popular by movies like "Clueless" and "Cruel Intentions" and TV shows like "Dawson's Creek," but this film is clearly not in the same league with those, mostly because of a listless script. "Drive Me Crazy" is more likely to put you to sleep than to arouse any emotions suggested by its title. The intentions may have been good here, but the execution strikes me as simply uninspired. There's nothing much at all to recommend it.

Fmovies: The non-director's cut left out many needed flashback sequences that helped developed the character's more thoroughly. For instance, the electocutes were orginally named pink bitches. Also, a very underrated sequence was ray's mockumentary that implied that high school students at basketball games were no different than nazi germany. when the in-crowd makes fun of him nicole, points out "hey, he's going to win so many mtv video awards and you're going to do nothin" or something to that effect. The actual director's cut is a mere four hours and actual breaks the movie down into a three part series not unlike godfather. The first follows the lives of their parents before the divorce and cancer in small industrial city. The second is hambone and nicole's early years as up to their breakup in seventh grade. The producers showed us the last but since prequels are so popular these days hopefully the earlier drive me crazy's will come out in the next few years. look for mary kate olsen to play a young nicole, not ashley >

I was pleasantly surprised at how realistic the characters felt. For once the leading lady was not head cheerleader/prom queen but an average girl with a good intelligence.

There were some divisions in pupils, but there were no spotty nerd characters who did nothing but play with computers and watch Star Trek. They actually had an alternate respectable social world.

I was annoyed that our sporting hero seemed to be the only guy who scored for the basketball team, but you can't have everything.

The relationships were slightly more believable, impulse attractions were short lived, and dormant attraction and friendship was re-awakened in a smooth and acceptable manner. The subtle conniving women were enjoyable to watch.

I was expecting a really poor and tacky American High School comedy, but found a quite refreshing change from all the other movies that have been listed in these reviews.

And a word of advice... if you hate high school comedies then don't watch it. Personally I can't stand those movies with that old cliche of boy and girl attracted to each other. I mean puleeze.

Drive Me Crazy fmovies. Nicole (Melissa Joan Hart) has her eye on a hunky basketball star. She makes the overtures but he casts his gaze on a cheerleader instead. Nicole has been the major planner for an upcoming community dance and now her choice of dates is taken! Meanwhile, next door neighbor, Chase, has been dumped by his eccentric girlfriend. He's sad. Melissa cooks up a compromise. If Chase will pretend to be her guy to make the basketball star jealous, she will do the same for him and his ex. But, first Melissa insists on giving Chase a makeover. Will their schemes result in mutual benefits? And, what about Nicole's absentee father? Will he ever be interested in his daughter's happenings? This movie would make a nice conversation starter for high school teens. Besides its entertainment value, it has some good messages and quandaries about what it means to be in the "in crowd" and the "out crowd". The stars are quite good looking and have good acting abilities, especially Adrian Grenier. Typical but nice costumes and settings compliment the film, too. If you would like a movie to watch with your teenage daughter or son about self worth and choices in life, this movie would be beneficial. And, you both just might end up giggling and touched.

If you don't like teen comedy/drama films, then don't bother seeing this film, you're going to hate it. There is nothing terribly original or spectacular about this film, compared to similar films, but it's still got some good stuff. There really isn't a whole lot of comedy in the film, so I'd be much more inclined to classify this film as a teen drama, so don't watch this film expecting a hilarious movie.

The cast is surprisingly good in the film. Melissa Joan Hart does a great job in her first starring role and puts on a pretty good show for the most part. She also looks very attractive throughout the film. The other main character, Chase, played by Adrian Grenier is a new face to me, but does a good job with his role. Ali Larter looks very nice in the film as well and does a fine job in her role. Stephen Collins was another familiar face to me, and does a good job, although his role is rather minor. Susan May Pratt caught my eye in "10 Things I Hate About You" and pulls off another good job in this film as well. Keri Lynn Pratt (I wonder if they're related) is another new face to me, but I will definitely keep my eyes open for her future work after seeing her in this film. She is also quite easy on the eyes. The rest of the cast did a good job as well. Nothing to complain about in that respect.

Most of the characters were actually rather interesting. I really liked the characters of Ray and Dave, they both seemed like very likeable people and quite the underdogs (gotta root for the underdogs). I also really liked that even the jocks in this film were not really made out to be idiots and jerks (of course one of them in particular was...Eddie). The character, Brad, was the most important jock-character and he wasn't made out to be a bad person or unlikeable person at all, just a guy that Nicole (Melissa Joan Hart) was head over heels for...and then wasn't.

Another thing this film really had going for it was that it stayed away from all the gross-out, stupid comedy that is so abundant in most teen movies these days. I can really appreciate a film that doesn't resort to that...sure sometime it's really funny, but most of the time it's just un-needed.

If you are the kind of person that likes teen comedy/drama films, then give this one a chance, you just might like it. Other than that, I would recommend you spend your money and time elsewhere. If you do see the film, I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for reading,

-Chris

This one is a guilty pleasure movie of mine. I can't explain why I like it, or if I even do like it, but when it's on I watch it. Sure it has my all time favorite movie babe Ali Larter in it, but you don't see me watching Varsity Blues or American Outlaws. Maybe when I discover what it is I like about this movie I'll post it later.