I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

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.

I'm normally a big fan of the teen comedy. I loved "Can't Hardly Wait" for instance, and many other movies in the genre. This one, however, left me pretty bored. The acting was very forced, especially from James Franco, which surprised me. None of the main characters had any real chemistry, and the storyline was tried and contrived--two guys scheme together to get two girls. I had a hard time believing that a seemingly sharp and slightly cynical girl like Maggie could fall for Chris' awkward attempts to impress her. I don't see a girl like that falling for romance and poetry unless it was really authentic, and I certainly cannot imagine that she would actually fall for his obvious act. As for the other lead girl, Ashley, she was just difficult to watch all together, not to mention that she was far less attractive than Maggie, and even the girls who played her friends. The only other character that I found entertaining was Ryan's mischievous sidekick, Floyd. If you really feel like watching a good teen comedy, go for something like "Orange County" or even "Clueless". "Whatever it Takes" does not have what it takes.

The Story about the teens do whatever it takes to get the girls of his dream.Even though this is just another romance/comedy teen movie that you probably know the ending, even though there nothing much to the story I still find it to be a very good and hilarious comedy teen movie. Character Floyd is the funniest of all especially the scene with the firework. The movie also consists of good cast of young and talented actors that makes this movie very much attractive and believable. To some this might not be as good as expected, but there one sure thing this movie is really funny and wicked.Rating: 6/10

WHATEVER IT TAKES (2000) * Shane West, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, Marla Sokoloff, James Franco, Aaron Paul, Colin Hanks, Kip Purdue, Julia Sweeney, Richard Schiff. Charmless and brainless umpteenth remake of all of John Hughes' teenager in love flicks with alleged comedy take on 'Cyrano De Bergerac' of all blasphemes! West and Franco form an unlikely alliance to help the other win over the girl of their dreams, yada yada yada.Babelicious O' Keefe is put through the ringer and humiliation but her character deserves it and for that matter the rest of the cast and particular the talentless director David Raynor who wouldn't recognize subtlety and nuance if it bit him on the ass!