10 Things I Hate About You

It's, like, Shakespeare, man! This good-natured and likeable update of The Taming of the Shrew takes the basics of Shakespeare's farce about a surly wench and the man who tries to win her and transfers it to modern-day Padua High School. Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles) is a sullen, forbidding riot grrrl who has a blistering word for everyone; her sunny younger sister Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) is poised for high school stardom. The problem: overprotective and paranoid Papa Stratford (a dryly funny Larry Miller) won't let Bianca date until boy-hating Kat does, which is to say never. When Bianca's pining suitor Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) gets wind of this, he hires the mysterious, brooding Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) to loosen Kat up. Of course, what starts out as a paying gig turns to true love as Patrick discovers that underneath her brittle exterior, Kat is a regular babe. The script, by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, is sitcom-funny with peppy one-liners and lots of smart teenspeak; however, its cleverness and imagination doesn't really extend beyond its characters' Renaissance names and occasional snippets of real Shakespearean dialogue. What makes the movie energetic and winning is the formula that helped make She's All That such a big hit: two high-wattage stars who look great and can really act. Ledger is a hunk of promise with a quick grin and charming Aussie accent, and Stiles mines Kat's bitterness and anger to depths usually unknown in teen films; her recitation of her English class sonnet (from which the film takes its title) is funny, heartbreaking, and hopelessly romantic. The imperious Allison Janney (Primary Colors) nearly steals the film as a no-nonsense guidance counselor secretly writing a trashy romance novel. –Mark Englehart

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars 10 Things I Hate About You
This movie is a comedy romance. It is fun for the whole family. It has a lot of great sarcasism, and also in the end, you still get the little warm fuzzy feeling you get in romances. I recommend this movie to any who appreciate sarcasism for humor.

5 Stars Great
The best teen comedy of the late 90's. Theres something in there for everyone. If you're from the Northwest or you've ever wanted to go it gives you a great impression of what its like to grow up in Washington

4 Stars Entertaining.
10 Things I Hate About You starring Julia Stiles is a clever and modern twist on Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. This film is even sadder to watch now since Heath Ledger's passing, his performance made him a star. Ledger is very likeable and charming in this film, you'll love him in it. Great cast, fun comedy, and unexpected romance. Buy this movie today!

4 Stars Taming the shrew
Excellent movie. Funny , love story. Filmed here in Tacoma and it wasn't raining , Imagine that ! Julia & Heath were fantastic.

4 Stars Surprisingly excellent teen comedy
The 80s were a big time for the teen genre; it seemed like almost every week there was a new teen movie opening, but with the end of the 80s and the end of the John Hughes era seemed to be the end of the teen genre. While there were still some teen movies produced in the 90s they didn't seem to get over as well. But towards the late 90s with the success of the TV series Dawson's Creek and the American Pie franchise suddenly the teen genre was back in a big way. What followed were mostly lackluster movie, but 10 Things I Hate About You is one of the better ones to follow.

Clich?s are a very odd thing; sometimes they can do a movie in due to how predictable it is where as other times they help make the movie enjoyable. 10 Things I Hate About You is one of the movies where the clich?s actually help and make the movie a lot of fun. We've seen movies like this done back in the 80s and overall done better, but there is just something about this movie that works really well and it comes out very enjoyable.

I have no problem with sexuality in movies it's a shame in these PC days everyone seems to complain, but it's kind of nice not having any of that. At first the sexual gags are fun, but then other filmmakers see that and try and up the ante and it's no longer fun. It becomes doing these gags for the sake of it. 10 Things I Hate About You goes back and does things more simple and simply just aims to make you laugh and entertain you and it very much gets the job done.

The screenplay by Karen McCullah Lutz & Kirsten Smith was very well written with excellent and characters with plenty of depth; all the usual type characters are here; the jock, the pretty popular girl, the guy in love with the popular girl, the outcast and the bad boy. With all of that one would think this movie would probably fail, but to the credit of the writers they take the basic teen movie formula and work it well and write a very entertaining movie.

Director Gil Junger pretty much delivers the text book teen movie direction and like the writing instead of hurting it really works well despite any clich?s. When doing a teen flick there are often silly and over the top moments; sometimes they work and sometimes they fell flat. But here the over the top moments are well done and believable.

10 Things I Hate About You in my opinion is a much better movie than one might think. The movie has a lot of heart and a great message of just be yourself. This is the type of movie that is a great pick up if you are feeling down. At least for me it works like that and entertains me for 90-minutes and puts a smile on my face and despite any flaws that is all that matters. How the movie ends shouldn't come as much of a shocker to the audience. I think it's safe to know from the very start once the plot kicks in how this will all turn out. But again despite all this 10 Things really works so well and is one of the better teen flicks of the 90s and quite honestly would make my top 10 teen comedies, I really enjoyed this film a lot more than I thought I would.

I'm not gonna jump on the let's all praise Heath Ledger, which due to his tragic death a lot of people are now doing. Heath Ledger was a very talented actor and despite being an Oscar nominated actor didn't fully reach his potential. I think the future was very bright for him and he would have lived up to that potential. But here in 10 Things he was really great. He played the typical teen movie bad boy with another side. And he does it so well and brings so much to the role. His character was one of the leads and honestly it could have been a boring clich?d character, but Ledger brought so much and almost makes it fresh. Julia Stiles I also really liked; her character was a lot of fun and any scene with her and Heath Ledger worked great.

The rest of the cast is excellent as well, but in my opinion Larry Miller as the over-protective father steals the show. I've always liked Larry Miller; he's one of those guys that seems to always pop up. You might not always know his name, but you'll know his face. Even in the smallest of roles he always delivers and in 10 Things I Hate About You he clearly steals the show.

Teen driven movies often hire actors in their mid to late 20s and even as old as early 30s. While that isn't old, but for playing a teenager it sure is. So it's really refreshing to see a movie about teenagers and all the actors very close to the ages. Most of the cast in the movie were very close to the ages of their characters at the time of filming.

In closing, while 10 Things I Hate About You may not be the most original teen comedy what it lacks in originality it makes up in just pure fun. This movie is a blast from beginning, middle to end. The highlight of the movie is Heath Ledger singing Just too Good to Be True in the bleachers to Julia Stiles.

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