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Whether he’s the star of the basketball team or the quarterback on the football team, the school’s biggest jock is always the guy that every girl wants to be with. In Kate Spencer’s (Brittany Snow) new school, that’s John Tucker (Jesse Metcalfe). And, as luck would have it, every girl in school is with him. Heather (Ashanti), the head cheerleader. Beth (Sophia Bush), the Earth-friendly nature girl. And Carrie (Arielle Kebbel), the all-around over-achiever. They’re all dating John Tucker—but, since the head cheerleader would never associate with the hippie chick, who would never associate with the bubbly over-achiever, none of them know about the others. The only one who knows is Kate, the new girl, who’s entirely invisible—until all four of them end up in the same PE class one day, and the truth comes out.
Instead of killing each other over some worthless, cheating high school boy, Kate encourages the girls to get even. So the girls band together for the sole purpose of making John Tucker’s life miserable. Unfortunately, their plan backfires—making him even more popular than before—so they switch to Plan B. Their next mission: to turn Kate into the perfect girl, make John fall in love with her, and then destroy him. The only problem is that Kate has absolutely no experience with guys. And she might have a bit of a crush on someone else—John’s little brother, Scott (Penn Badgley).
John Tucker is a pretty typical teen comedy—only it has a dark twist. And, for a while, I loved it. I loved the girls’ plot to bring John down—and I would have been perfectly happy if the entire movie had played out that way. It’s funny, and it makes perfect sense. After all, what girl hasn’t wanted revenge on some idiot boyfriend at some time or another? But after the story switches gears to Plan B, it’s not as fun anymore. Kate is such an adorable character that I hated to see her become someone she’s not—only to torture a guy who’s never really done anything to her. Sure, there’s a connection to her mother (played by Jenny McCarthy—I know…I think it’s creepy, too), who always dates guys like John—but that wasn’t enough for me. And when Kate’s mom starts making her feel bad for doing it, well, call me a big softy, but it made me feel bad for playing along. It also doesn’t help that the whole thing ends with a fluffy teen-movie ending that’s even more unreal than the rest of the movie—and not nearly as dark.
So while John Tucker Must Die is a lot of fun for a while, it doesn’t take long for it to go careening out of control, eventually running headfirst into a very large tree. Great idea, bad execution.
