John Tucker Must Die

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John Tucker Must Die
Directed by	Betty Thomas
Produced by	Michael Birnbaum Bob Cooper Karen Lunder
Written by	Jeff Lowell
Starring	Jesse Metcalfe Brittany Snow Ashanti Sophia Bush Arielle Kebbel and Jenny McCarthy
Music by	Richard Gibbs
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	July 28, 2006
Running time	87 min.
Language	English
Budget	$18 million
IMDb profile

John Tucker Must Die is a 2006 American high school comedy film about a trio of girls (played by Ashanti, Sophia Bush, and Arielle Kebbel) who plot to break the heart of manipulative basketball star John Tucker (Jesse Metcalfe) after they learn he has been secretly dating all three and pledging each is "the one". They recruit cute wallflower Kate (Brittany Snow) in their scheme to publicly humiliate the cad. The movie was released in North America on July 28, 2006. It was directed by Betty Thomas.

The movie debuted at #3 on the Box office with 14.7 million dollars made in the opening week. After three weeks the movie placed #9 at the Box Office and made $40,000,000. Most of the filming was done at the Heritage Woods Secondary School in Port Moody, British Columbia, Canada during the summer of 2005, and set in the American Pacific Northwest (presumably in the suburbs of either Seattle, Portland,OR, or Northern California.) The movie is the first major film to host its official homepage on MySpace; the film's production studio, 20th Century Fox, is a subsidiary of News Corporation, which also owns MySpace. The DVD was released on November 14, 2006.

The movie's tagline is "Don't get mad. Get even."

[edit] Reception

In its opening weekend, the film grossed a total of $14.3 million, ranking third in the U.S. box office results for that weekend. As of November 2, the film has grossed $41 million domestically. In one of the early scenes, the All-American Rejects' songs - Dirty Little Secret - was used.

Michael Medved gave John Tucker Must Die three stars out of four, calling it "Slick, stupid and slightly sleazy…" and saying that about halfway through the film, the plot collapses. He added that Jenny McCarthy, in a supporting role, "…is notably better than the rest of the cast.."[1] James Berardinelli from Reelviews also disliked the film. He gave it 1.5 stars out of 4, saying "The gulf is vast between what the studio wants us to think John Tucker Must Die is and what it really is. The marketers and publicists would have us believe this is a dark, edgy teen comedy about a band of two-timed girls taking revenge on the school's biggest hunk. Unfortunately, Betty Thomas' film is neither dark nor edgy (although it occasionally tries masquerading in those categories), nor is it particularly funny." He goes on to mention "The movie may be able to bamboozle a few teen female fans into multiplexes, but it's hard to imagine any of them - even those who swoon at the sight of Jesse Metcalfe – labeling this as better than forgettable. And for anyone outside that demographic unfortunate enough to endure John Tucker Must Die, the memory will be too painful to fade quickly." Frank Lovece of Film Journal International, conversely, praised director Betty Thomas as having " 'the touch' — the one that can take an outré idea and make it live in that seemingly impossible comic place between lighter-than-air and down-to-earth," and said the film "manages to be witty without being snarky or sophomoric."[2]

[edit] Plot

The movie begins with Kate (Brittany Snow) relating various details of her life up to the point when the film takes place. Her mother Lori (Jenny McCarthy) has moved towns multiple times after bad relationships with random men (Kate no longer bothers to remember their names, and refers to them all as 'Skip', supposedly in relation to the way they 'skip' the relationship). This is beneficial to her and to the film as she gains an understanding of the workings of immoral men. She describes herself as always being "invisible".

While working as a waitress, she sees local hottie John Tucker (Jesse Metcalfe) dates with three different girls. The first date for the evening is with Carrie (Arielle Kebbel),a chronic over-achiever who spends her life in extra-curricular clubs and working on her college application . His second date is with Heather (Ashanti), who is the sassy, aggressive head cheerleader. John's final date for the evening is Beth (Sophia Bush) a vegan activist who is rumored to be highly promiscuous. Kate learns that John dates girls from different cliques at his school so that they never interact and convinces the girls he dates to keep their affairs secret from his father.

One day the gym classes are combined, and Kate, Carrie, Heather, and Beth all end up on the same team for a volleyball game. Carrie whispers to a friend that the reason she didn't call her was because she was on a date with John Tucker. Heather hears this and smacks her with the volleyball when she serves and pretends it was an accident, but she soon does it again. Carrie becomes angry and they start to fight. Beth tries to stop them, telling them no man is worth fighting for when Heather says "John Tucker is mine" which Beth hears and becomes angry; they all begin to fight, and Kate ends up stuck in the middle. Along with Kate, they receive detention for the resulting fight and she assists them in plotting retaliation against John Tucker.

Despite the girls' strengths, their initial attempts to undo John are eventually utilized by him and he remains as popular as ever, if not more so. Finally Carrie, Heather and Beth agree that breaking his heart is the ideal revenge and enlist Kate to aid them. Kate joins the cheerleading team in order to get John's attention. He sees her after the practice, then compliments her. Kate meets up with the troupe and tells them of John's compliment.

Kate's hesitation causes suspicion and after a round of questions, Kate reveals that she never dated anybody before. Kate freaks out but the other girls say that she has three friends who know how he functions. Attracted to Kate, John asks Scott (Penn Badgley), his brother, about Kate, who happens to be his chemistry partner. Scott, with his addiction to music, replies only about Kate's music tastes and says she might not be the right girl for him. John replies, "Dude. 'Girl' is my type!" During Chem the next day, John sends a flower-gram to Kate and shouts his phone number over the loudspeaker. Kate and John meet later. John asks why she didn't call him. Kate replies, "I didn't have a pen." During the next game, John walks over to Kate during the last minute of the last quarter and threatens to not shoot the ball if Kate doesn't go out with him. Kate accepts, then John shoots the ball, thus winning the game.

John and Kate meet that Friday at a campfire. After the date, John offers to drive Kate home. Kate, afraid that John is going to kiss her, talks into a spy camera in her bra and calls for the girls' help. Beth walks into the car and teaches Kate how to kiss, but the two are disturbed by a pervert outside the car. John heads toward the car. Beth, now trapped, hides in the back seat. The Jeep drives to Kate's house and the two walk outside. Then John said if he walks Kate to his door, he might be too tempted to kiss her. Kate says that she always likes a little risk and they kiss anyway. Beth escapes while the two are distracted, but her skirt rips off in the process.

Kate goes into her house and her mother tells her she's not comfortable with the plot and she's afraid Kate might forget who she is. Kate says she was nobody before John, so there's nothing to lose. Kate and John's second date turns out to be a surprise for Kate, limiting the supply of spy gadgets Carrie can invent for the date. Kate decides to wear the old-fashioned boob-cam. Kate and John leave and go into the restaurant where Kate works. The date turns out to be a sailboat ride, leaving the other girls envious. The camera starts to lose signal, so the girls rent a boat and start heading toward the ship. The motorboat's engine fails and the girls get stuck. Beth calls AAA, but there's no signal.

A few days later, the team leaves for an away game. This is where part of the plot unravels. In the hotel, Kate calls John through webcam and seduces him. She dares John to put on a thong and then scale a building to Kate's room, supposedly 3 doors to the left. John doubts it at first, but his curiosity gets the best of him. He scales the building, enters the room, and lies on the bed. Instead of Kate, Coach Williams exits the bathroom and pulls John out of the room, embarrassing him. Kate apologizes, saying it was actually 4 doors.

John, even though embarrassed, asks Kate if she will be his girlfriend, then gives her his watch. Scott talks to Kate and asks her why she's talking to Beth, Heather, and Carrie. He finds out that this is a plot, then asks Kate if she really hates John Tucker. At John's birthday party, Kate steps on stage and reveals the entire plot. John, instead of being heartbroken, admits that what he did was wrong, but also accepts the support of his friends saying there isn't anything wrong with cheating on "the finest girls in school." A cake fight erupts between Kate and John.

The next scene shows Kate and John talking what seems to be a few days after the party. John says he learned from his mistakes and will now tell the truth. It shows John telling his new girlfriend about his other girlfriend and how this might just work. Scott, happy that Kate admitted the plot accepts to be his lab partner again, coming up with a cheesy excuse that he cut his partner's finger off. After a narration by Kate, the movie cuts to credits.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Post-credits scenes

After the cast list in the credits, the movie shows the girls walking past a staircase. A teacher is walking down and drops a whole pile of papers and the papers spread all over the staircase. A group of male teachers come by and they bend down to help. When they bend down, you see different patterned thongs.

A little bit into the credits and there's a scene in Tokyo, Japan. Three girls out by a fountain looking at their cell phones and laughing: the picture on the cell phone screen is revealed to be the same picture of John Tucker in a thong earlier in the movie.Then they say how cute he is and wish they were going out with him

[edit] Trivia

• John Tucker was referenced in the 2006 Gaia Online Halloween event. The similarity of the plot of the movie, and the subplot of the non-player character called Liam, which involves him dating three of the female shopkeepers at once (one of whom, Sasha, was involved in a love triangle already).
• Kate wore a burgundy Hollister shirt.
• Carrie wore a yellow Hollister shirt.

[edit] External links

• Official Website
• John Tucker Must Die at the Internet Movie Database
• John Tucker Must Die at Rotten Tomatoes
• John Tucker Must Die at Metacritic
• John Tucker Must Die at Box Office Mojo