Whatever It Takes (2000)

I love this movie so much

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Whatever It Takes is mislabeled as being a Teen Comedy. In actuality it's a Teen Farce that tries to be a Teen Comedy. It fails as a Comedy as the majority of the characters are unabashedly selfish individuals in pursuit of their own selfish desires with close to no redeemable qualities. That's the territory of Farce. Other examples of Teen Farces include the American Pie movies and Not Another Teen Movie. Where Whatever it Takes fails is that it tries to be a Teen Comedy only in the romance between our two "unpopular" characters, when the rest of the characters and situations fit the genre of a Farce. It's like the two leads got picked up out of a Comic world and were left trapped in a Farcical one. And the fight between the two genres of humor gets this film nowhere-fast.If it were a Comedy it would be more celebratory of the community and interested in bringing members who don't "fit in" the community into it as full fledged members with a place, a purpose, and a partner. What this film is interested in saying is that the community is too selfish and deserving of "punishment" to bother joining--which is typically the stuff of Satire or Farce.In a farce there's little to no concern for other people, and body humor frequently goes for grossing people out. Which is what this movie nearly goes out of its way to portray. The entire high school community is composed of a group of selfish individuals, the reason for their being so the movie silently postulates is due to the fact that they have very little care or respect for themselves as individuals--a realization which would work in a Comedy if that realization wasn't being completely undercut with only the minimal in character development and the most ridiculous of gross-out humor. I mean what school teaches safe sex with a giant penis and a giant condom? I almost felt sorry for Ashley, the popular girl, whose character is revealed to have a neurotic mind completely entangled around her low self-esteem, but this realization is coupled in the same moment by her eating a chocolate cake and opening her mouth to reveal the cake's blacked out her teeth. Or that she begs all night on Ryan's lawn to ask to go to prom, only to tear away her dress and reveal the skimpy bikini underneath. That kind of humor belongs in a Farce, but is out of place in a Comedy, and it completely undercuts any sympathy the character might otherwise have developed. Had she not blacked out her teeth or revealed her hidden bikini we could have seen under the veneer of her popularity and seen the scared child who desperately wants to fit in and will put herself into near-emotional abusive situations in order to get negative attention and thus feel gratified. If the movie had actually done that it could have given some more weight to the conflict between Ryan realizing his feelings for Ashley, and now feeling obligated to show Ashley how to stand up for herself and be confident in being her own person (in a John Hughes manner recalling Some Kind of Wonderful). However the opportunity is missed as the film would rather make jokes about how hot the actress is and how horny her character is--that she doesn't even notice that Ryan is replaced with another boy and still has sex with him.The soulful parts such as Ryan realizing that he actually likes Maggie as he tells Chris how to woo her in the theater, are lifted from its source material of Cyrano D'Bergerac. The rest of the movie and its sense of humor is more appropriate for a farce, which if you watch the special features seems to be the kind of humor the director is entertained by the most and pushed the actors towards in his direction.In the end the script should have seen a few more revisions to either take out the farcical humor and add some redeeming heartfelt qualities to the high school community and its most popular students, or fully embraced the farcical nature of its humor and dehumanized its pair of "unpopular" kids and thus be the precursor to Not Another Teen Movie.Either would have been better than this awkward film that can't make up its mind about what genre it is.

"Whatever it Takes" isn't really THE movie that you'll remember the rest of your life. It's nothing more than just another teen movie that tells the story that every one of this movies tries to bring, spiced up with some humor.An ordinary boy is in love with the most popular girl of the school. He's too afraid to talk to her, but one of the popular guys at school will help him, in return for a favor. He'll get some help if he can make sure that his neighbor, a pretty girl that has been his friend since years, will date the popular guy, even though they are complete opposites. So he does everything he can to convince her, succeeds and gets the date with his own love interest. But of course the girl of his dreams isn't exactly what he imagined she would be like and now he understands what a wonderful girl his neighbor is... only it's already too late, or isn't it? Don't expect something mind blowing, because then you'll be very disappointed. However, I have to admit that it is far from the worst teen movie that I've ever seen. Most of the time the jokes actually worked, making this movie at least a bit better.All in all I had a rather good time. I give it a 6/10.

Ryan Woodman (Shane West) and Maggie Carter (Marla Sokoloff) are neighbors and best friends. Ryan is a very sensible guy, his nerd friends are very weird and has a crush in Ashley Grant (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe). Ashley is a shallow but popular, beautiful and sexy girl in their high school. Her cousin Chris Campbell (James Franco) is a brainless and dumb American football player, who wants to have a date with Maggie. Ryan and Chris make a deal: each one of them will introduce and help the other to be with the girl of their dreams. This movie is so predictable that around six minutes of story I could foresee the end. The story is full of clichés, but there are some funny (but also expected) situations. The teen cast is not bad and in the end it becomes a reasonable and forgettable entertaining. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): `Correndo Atrás' (`Running After')

Whatever It Takes believe it or not was acucatlly pretty good. The film has a good script which makes the film believeable and funny. Shane West and James Franco as the leads complient each other and if I was still a dumb high school guy blinded by beauty and popularity I'd do the same thing they did. Jodi Lynn O'Keffe and Marla Spkloff are good as the the female leads and the film does feature more hot girls. Another good to waste a afternoon.