While watching this film I couldn’t help but be pissed at the misleading advertising – what little that I’ve seen. Based on the trailer I thought this film would be sort of a modern day retailing of the Snow White story. I’m an absolute sucker for the teeny bopper fish out of water story. I don’t know how I feel about this film on the one hand, I do like Amanda Bynes (Sydney White) I think she does have potential but she seems like she’s not in her element here. Her voice sounds fake and at time grating, not at all natural. I think she’s trying to do some sort of accent, but who knows what accent.
Sydney White starts off in the typical teeny bopper film fashion we get our first glimpse of Sydney in her natural habitat – a construction site run by her plumber father John Schneider (it’s always good to see John work, but then I always wonder what happened to Tom Wopat?) and his crew. Right away I was confused, I don’t know anything about construction or plumbing but it seemed like her father ran the show, but later in the film they call him a plumber and my vision of a plumber is a guy in overalls with his van who comes and fix plumbing not someone who manages a big construction crew. But I digress…
We find out right away that Sydney is a Tomboy and a daddy’s girl with no mother influence because she died when Sydney was nine. Now Sydney hopes to follow in her mother’s footsteps by joining her mother’s Sorority. She of course encounters the stereotypical Queen Bee bitch Rachel (Played by Sara Paxtonl) who rules the Sorority (Beta Gama Nu – I think) and is jealous when her ex-boyfriend Tyler (Matt Long) falls for Sydney.
So far I’m with this film, I’m enjoying it for what it is but it seems like they quickly run out of steam, clichés and ideas for the A story about Greek life and completely changes directions by throwing in an entirely different film into the 2nd act. The story shifts its focus to a bunch of stereotypical geeky misfits who are terrorized by the Greeks, the film is trying so hard to become Revenge of the Nerds on us and it ultimately dooms this film.
It wants to have a message about tolerance, but the nerds in this house are almost all universally unlikable, there’s a reason they are outcasts. There was one moment in this film that made me smile and that was when one of the geeks made his own first person shooter that combined elements of Medal of Honor and Viva Piñata into a game called Gurkin of Honor. Watching them blast a Piñata with a machine gun was gold.
Even by genre standards it fails on almost every level, but I didn’t hate it.
Final Grade C-
EM Review by
Michelle Alexandria
Originally Posted 9/22/07
“Sydney White” is a pleasant, predictable romantic comedy which is an update of the Snow White fairy tale (the original title was something like Sydney White and the Seven Dorks). The evil sorority leader/class president takes the place of the queen and a computer popularity website fills in for her mirror. In this one, it’s the prince who does the singing. Suitable date movie.
GRADE = “B”