Slap Her... She's French (2002)

Excellent but underrated film

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Reading through these reviews, I must agree with a lot of points I hate agreeing with. It's a comedy and not supposed to be taken seriously. That much is true, but if not taking something seriously is what makes a good comedy, then Epic Movie is a comedy masterpiece.But no, Epic Movie is painfully terrible, and so is this film. This does not imply I don't have a sense of humor like many will probably accuse me of. I actually find some parts that I COULD find funny in some circumstances, but here I don't.The film clearly implies that it's meant to be a comedy with a slight serious edge to it. Okay, the comedy in itself is slightly amusing at best and gave me a bit of a chuckle in one part or another. So it shouldn't deserve a score so low as 1/10, right? Well, maybe not, but it's the highest I can give when the rest of the movie is so hateful. I found only the little brother likable, and he was like from another world compared to the rest of the characters. The main protagonist in particular, is stupid, shallow, narrow-minded, homophobic c**t who always gets what she wants despite being a bimbo of a repulsive personality. And when things get ruined for her I'm probably supposed to feel sorry for her, but I start feeling good.When a movie clearly wants me to root for one character, but ends up making me hate him/her from the deepest reaches of my soul, something is done terribly wrong. Even the environment where Starla lives in seems to feed her success with its culture and that is just unsettling. It makes me wonder in fear, if this culture actually exists in America or is this a plain parody of it. Even if it's just a parody, the rest of the film just ruins it for me. Especially when in the end Starla could have just learned, that being such a terrible person isn't the best way to live, she ultimately wins and learns that it is okay to be terrible, because if you're popular, you'll survive everything. That and no clear mark of any lesson learned in the process make me want to write an alternate ending where Starla and her new boyfriend (forgot his name) have their car explode on their face as they drive in the horizon at the end of the film.And still it would be letting her go easy...

I was surprised to see the wide range of opinions in the other reviews of this movie, from "terrible" to "brilliant". I go with the former. From start to finish this movie is uninspired, unfunny and just plain silly.The plot is a weak mixture of implausible and meaningless. Apart from once or twice, I laughed _at_ the movie, not _with_ the movie. The twist at the end doesn't explain much and just makes the movie that much more random.This is a strong contender for the worst movie I've ever seen. Totally pointless.

People are entitled to their opinions, but I can't quite grasp how this has ended up with a measely 4.8 stars. This movie is actually good! I'll be honest, when I saw the trailer in the cinema (it was given theatrical release in Britain, I'm not sure about anywhere else!) I though 'Oh, here we go, another brainless American sex-comedy.' This isn't completely removed from the truth, but my first thought was certainly very unfair. This is actually quite a smart movie. The plot in a nutshell is as follows - Starla, the popular head cheerleader, has her 'perfect' life picked apart by the conniving exchange student that, ironically, Starla became involved with for her own selfish reasons. As you might expect, mayhem ensues. Contrary to the title, there is very little mockery of the French - no, all the mocking is aimed squarely at American culture, particularly that of the 'popular' high school student. This culture is lambasted, parodied and ripped to shreds at every turn with hilarious effect - the Beef Pageant full of grinning, dancing cowgirls; Starla's refusal to see the usefulness of learning a foreign language; Karl Fuller, the meat-munching quarterback (no pun intended) with a head full of steak, rather than brains; and of course Starla's dippy acolyte friends who loudly demand of Genevieve 'Do you speak American?' The characters are all wonderful and played surprisingly well, considering none of them are massive 'names'. Jane McGregor does a wonderful job of Starla, making her likable despite her flaws. It's a shame McGregor is not really given more of a chance in mainstream Hollywood as she played this role very well indeed. Perabo is fine as Genevieve, bringing across a smug innocence even if her accent is a little bit 'Music Hall', shall we say. Starla's family are great - Brandon Smith is good as Starla's wholesome pursuits-type father, and Julie White is really funny as Mrs Grady who is rarely seen without her Thermos flask of Long Island Iced Tea. Jesse James is brilliant as Starla's precocious little brother Randolph, and Starla's trashy gal-pals are also played to a tee. One thing you can say about this film is that it never glamorizes the stuff it pokes fun at. An obvious comparison here is Mean Girls that came out 18 months or so later - another sharp pastiche of teen culture and the stuff that goes with it - but come on, be honest. In the aftermath of that movie, how many girls did you know who suddenly wanted to become 'lip gloss chicks'? Apparently, at my school, particularly in the new Sixth Form (thank God I'd left by then!) there was a sudden surge of 'clique' behavior, as well as some stupid, misguided girls who insisted on calling themselves 'The Plastics.' This is why I think Slap Her... is superior to Mean Girls, though I'd be stomped for saying it out loud. I can't imagine anyone wanting to mirror shallow, selfish, oblivious Starla; big-mouthed, stupid Tanner; or two-faced, spiteful Ashley. This movie was so good at skewering the object of its main mockery it has rendered its target as completely unappealing. Slap her...is a surprisingly smart, comedic gem with an agenda, and deserves far more recognition that it gets.

I saw this movie back in 2002 when it came out, luckily I went to the cheap theater. Imagine my surprise when I saw a preview on ABC for a new movie, the "Premiere," they were saying. I watched the preview and the more times I saw it the more I insisted to family and friends that I had seen this film. They pointed out it was an "ABC Family Original," and this was the premiere, no way could I have seen it. Raunchy cheerleader moves, flippy hair, French student, girly cat fight, lots of posturing in front of mirrors, yeah I've seen this movie. However, ABC decided to get a little more PC (guess we're on better terms with France,) and they changed the title to "She Gets What She Wants."