StyleSk8r
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Bea Swanson
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
aysamichelle
The movie " Never Been Kissed" is a great movie in my opinion. Being that I was only 15 when I first saw this movie, it has opened my eyes to other genres of movies. This movie came out in 1999 so that makes it one year before I was born. Main actress , Drew Barrymore, in my opinion is the best choice for the character, Josie Geller. This movie reminded me of The Duff. Except Josie wasn't fat but in the end they both get the boy. I don't know much about the director and his style but this movie was a great one. Solid 9 out of 10.
yiskarasmussen
Okay, so before I start I would like to make it clear that I saw this movie late on in life, and it's already considered kind of old, which I'm sure has had a huge impact on my judgment of the film... I know that this is a hugely loved film by many women (and some men I know, for that matter) so I don't mean to upset any cult followers with my rating of it, but unfortunately by the time I saw this film there was nothing really unique about it. It's all been done before, and after having been given so many good reports, I guess my expectations were just too high. I love Drew Barrymore, I think she's a great actress, but this can hardly be considered one of her finest roles (that's not a complaint, by the way, just saying). So really I don't feel that I've missed out on much. In the film Drew had to wait until she was nearly 25 to get the kiss of her dreams, I had to wait that long to see this movie, and like the kiss, some things are kind of over rated.
richspenc
Josie Geller apparently has never been cool. Well, not in highschool anyway. She was an outcast, ridiculed, and mocked during her original highschool experience, and Josie starts getting ridiculed and mocked again when she goes back to highschool undercover from the Chicago sun times at age 25. Josie really is clueless, just look at what she wears on her first day back in school, and look how stupid and awkward she acts in her first class (I came from Billy, Billy Bali, I was a sheep herder). She accidentally said Billy cause she thought she saw Billy, her old highschool crush (who didn't like her anyway) for a second. But why would she think that he would be going back to highschool too, on the same day, in the same class. And even if she did accidentally say Billy, she could've thought of something better to say then "Billy Bali", and 'I was a sheep herder". Don't ask questions. At lunch when seeing a popular guy named Guy, Josie says " yes, you are a guy. What a guy...Yikes!..Bikes!" That's right, I'm serious. At age 14, I would've known cooler ways to act in school, and she was 25! Josie only later becomes cool because her brother Rob enrolls, becomes cool on his first day when winning a coleslaw eating contest, and tells the other popular kids Josie really is cool. Yeh. Like that will automatically change things. In my four years of highschool, I never knew of any kid who became popular on his first day at a new school by eating a gigantic trash barrel sized container of coleslaw. Another thing I noticed about the highschool in this movie was the scantily revealing outfits the girls (such as Jessica Alba) were wearing in school. Don't most schools have dress codes? I mean, they have strict airport style security at the school entrances and take away straws and nail files from you saying that they're weapons, but they let the girls there dress all slutty. And the airport style securities were never seen again after the one scene the whole rest of the movie, but Josie and other characters were still seen coming into school entrances several more times without the securities anywhere in sight. Then there's Josie's 23 year old brother Rob there who looks at the girls and says things such as "looks like we have some underage hottie's on our hands". And he starts going out with a 16 year old gymnast. In real life, I believe he would be in jail. Then there's the unpopular girl who becomes Josie's only friend on her first day. Why is she unpopular? She is just as pretty as the popular girls. She just isn't a complete bitch who dresses like a slut, and she's on the math team. Wait, I just answered my own question. Then there's Josie's workplace at the Chicago sun times. Josie's boss Gus (Jon O'Reilly) yells at her way too much like he just simply hates her. But I believe part of the reason of that is that Gus's boss Gary Marshal in the board meetings is such a jerk to him. I mean, Gary says that if Josie screws up, he won't just fire Josie, he'll fire both Josie and Gus. Then there's the hidden camera on a pin button that they put on Josie's shirt before she enters the school. I am able to know that such a thing is illegal. It's a violation. I mean, everyone at work would be able to see everywhere she goes, including the ladies room. Then after they put the button on Josie's shirt, suddenly everyone at the Chicago sun times is suddenly not doing anything anymore except all sitting around watching Josie's day on the TV. So did everyone else at work have no other work to do anymore?
Geoffrey DeLeons
I do not write reviews about very many movies. Only when one has touched me, either inspiring me or provoking me. Never Been Kissed is one of the worst, most mean-spirited movies I have ever seen. I would hate anyone if they had done this to Drew Barrymore, who we all love, but alas, she voluntarily accepted this part. I was going to go along with the plot when she said she was going "undercover" back to high school for the newspaper piece, but when I heard that, I thought, "Oh. A returning student in her twenties. It happens. Shouldn't be too traumatic. The cruelty and naivety of what happens in the film, however, was too much to bear, as this twenty (or thirty) something tries to act not like a 16-17 year old, but a drunken 5 year old. The moment when the teacher asked her if she was really 17 was excruciating. The gym class scene was heart-breaking, all the more so because it was Drew Barrymore, who, as in most of her films, plays a character with a tender, sensitive disposition. This was a perverse film, full of emotional sadism on the part of the other students and inexcuseable naivety on the part of Ms Geller. After the insults and pain she had experienced in high school (the first time), she should have returned ready and willing to devastate the opposition with her knowledge, education and experience. Besides the ethics and legality issues involved in obtaining personal information from minor children under false pretenses, this film actually gives us stern warning about ambition, self-delusion, deceipt and imitation. How many people will we lie to for money, mis-representing ourselves and for how long? What is the price we pay when the punishment that we are begging for comes to be? What is our pleasure when tender hearts are devoured by other's egoism and self-absorption?
