A 13-year-old girl thinks popularity is everything and she wants to fit in with the cool girls. Also she has a geeky friend for the reason that she needs a nice guy as a love interest.
Unfortunately, the cool girls hate her guts and just use her to do their homework. Wishes she was 30. A short time later, she goes into a closet during a party game and when she comes out, she's 30 (or 29 I guess?).
No need for Zoltar the Magnificent or Chevy Chase as a magical hot tub repairman. No, let's cut out the fat and get straight to the point. The transition is never explained. It just happens when convenient and unhappens when convenient. Cool.
Unlike in Big (1988), where the Hanks character's jejune mind makes him fit to make decisions at a toy company, the protagonist here just comes out swinging and makes appropriate leadership decisions at a magazine just because.
And the swiss cheese of a plot goes on. As usual in these romcoms, they don't bother to explain the reasons behind things, they just expect your brain to connect the dots that materialism, desire for popularity, and hard work = bad / uhm... geeky nice guys = good?
The mean girls at the beginning of the movie are bad but then they try to make you hate certain characters later on. The new boyfriend seems attractive and charming - why doesn't she like him exactly? The new friend is mostly supportive but she justifiably does some mean things - villain? The protagonist at 30 is also built up to be some sort of ogre just because she cares about her career and social reputation and doesn't call her parents much. I don't buy it, she seems ethically decent to me.
The acting is really bad. Garner weaves between confused 13-year-old girl and shrewd career woman about as smoothly as a drunk driver doing a cone test. The geeky friend in his adult form looks like he doesn't even want to be in this movie. Also he looks like a depressed Josh Gad (which means I expected a better performance if he looks like Josh Gad, lower points for the disappointment). The dialogue isn't funny either.
Not a good film from a technical or logical standpoint, but it's entertaining for sure. They wisely tried to play the radio over the stinky plot by cramming the movie with a rocking 80s soundtrack.
Also the intended audience will probably get the warm fuzzies just seeing this predictable three-act happy ending romcom about a girl who discovers that popularity isn't everything.
Honourable Mentions: The big dance scene is very reminiscent (plagiaristic?) of the one in "Can't Buy Me Love" (1987). Who wore it better? Defintiely "Can't Buy Me Love."
Unfortunately, the cool girls hate her guts and just use her to do their homework. Wishes she was 30. A short time later, she goes into a closet during a party game and when she comes out, she's 30 (or 29 I guess?).
No need for Zoltar the Magnificent or Chevy Chase as a magical hot tub repairman. No, let's cut out the fat and get straight to the point. The transition is never explained. It just happens when convenient and unhappens when convenient. Cool.
Unlike in Big (1988), where the Hanks character's jejune mind makes him fit to make decisions at a toy company, the protagonist here just comes out swinging and makes appropriate leadership decisions at a magazine just because.
And the swiss cheese of a plot goes on. As usual in these romcoms, they don't bother to explain the reasons behind things, they just expect your brain to connect the dots that materialism, desire for popularity, and hard work = bad / uhm... geeky nice guys = good?
The mean girls at the beginning of the movie are bad but then they try to make you hate certain characters later on. The new boyfriend seems attractive and charming - why doesn't she like him exactly? The new friend is mostly supportive but she justifiably does some mean things - villain? The protagonist at 30 is also built up to be some sort of ogre just because she cares about her career and social reputation and doesn't call her parents much. I don't buy it, she seems ethically decent to me.
The acting is really bad. Garner weaves between confused 13-year-old girl and shrewd career woman about as smoothly as a drunk driver doing a cone test. The geeky friend in his adult form looks like he doesn't even want to be in this movie. Also he looks like a depressed Josh Gad (which means I expected a better performance if he looks like Josh Gad, lower points for the disappointment). The dialogue isn't funny either.
Not a good film from a technical or logical standpoint, but it's entertaining for sure. They wisely tried to play the radio over the stinky plot by cramming the movie with a rocking 80s soundtrack.
Also the intended audience will probably get the warm fuzzies just seeing this predictable three-act happy ending romcom about a girl who discovers that popularity isn't everything.
Honourable Mentions: The big dance scene is very reminiscent (plagiaristic?) of the one in "Can't Buy Me Love" (1987). Who wore it better? Defintiely "Can't Buy Me Love."