For a film that advertises itself as a sharp and spiteful high-school comedy, this high-school comedy is surprisingly toothless and glib.
The John Tucker of the title, basketball hero and the school lustpot, doesn't die, nor is he ever likely to. He's just redeemed in the usual flaccid Hollywood manner.
His intended nemeses are three pretty girls, each of whom has experienced his passionate love-talk before being dropped like not-so-hot cakes.
They need help to get even, and the girl they choose to inflame him before making him look a fool seems as if she might do the business. But, of course, she doesn't. Instead she falls for him - and he for her.
Director Betty Thomas elicits serviceable performances from Jesse Metcalfe as the young chauvinist, and from Arielle Kebbel, Ashanti and Sophia Bush as the revenging lovelies, with Brittany Snow as the sap they enlist.
But they all look too old for their parts and it's difficult to envisage an incipient star among them.
John Tucker Must Die
Cert: 12A
