For all you people that don't read TALK BACK, this is Lane Myers, one of the barons of the Talk Back feature. He has a reaction for just about everything and to everyone. And here... He reacts to Drew Barrymore (and what red blooded male wouldn't?) So let loose Lane...

Hi there, Harry, Congratulations on your invitation to "COMING ATTRACTIONS"!! It couldn't have happened to a better guy.

I wrote a review for this once, but I gotta tell you, it's not as watchable the second time around. It holds up almost as well as "Can't Buy Me Love" and "Career Opportunities" do in repeat viewing.

I love Drew Barrymore. I don't know what it is about her, she's plucky, she's cute, she's totally watchable.

The first time I watched this flick, I liked it, a lot. I'm not sure why I liked it so much, but I still like it, just found it to be kind of.....well just there. But, it's kind of like the time I saw "SpaceCamp". The flick was the greatest flick I'd ever seen at the time and well, the circumstances of the day kind of clouded my judgement a little. Needless to say that when I hyped it to my friends, well I deserved the ass kicking I got, but hey! (I totally understand the "Godzilla" thing now, Harry.)

So, here's my review, second screening, no estrogen clogging the logic.

I sat there in the second screening, because I really had nothing better to do. This was in the same theater, but there weren't as many people this time because it was a Monday. I was thinking about some things. Why aren't those stupid movie slides longer, so that they don't repeat eighty times before the flick? How did that guy with the spike in his lip and shiny orange hair and bad acne get such a hot chick? What's that crap on the seat in front of me? Why does life continuously tend to suck? Why is a movie theater the only place I feel at home? Is that a Jujyfruit on my shoe?

Then the flick started.

So I sat back to be brightened up by another dose of Drew Goodness.

The previews?

The same as the first screening.

"STAR WARS: EPISODE ONE: THE PHANTOM MENACE" , my GOD what a cool trailer! I cannot wait until I can watch that bad ass lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan and Darth Maul! That double bladed lightsaber is just.......COOL!!!

"American Pie" Great flick, go see it, you'll laugh, I guarantee.

"Idle Hands" The screening my former best friend hunted down for kind of petered out, (ie: didn't really take place and he was shitting me, ABOUT A GREAT MANY THINGS.)

"10 Things I Hate About You" GREAT TITLE!!! I love this title and for some reason, I really wanna see the flick!

"Entrapment" Don't know, looks cool, great ass, I'll see it.

Then the flick started.

Drew Barrymore plays Josie Geller, a low level piss on at the Chicago Sun Times. I tell you, there's something about her that's like Cinematic Prozac! You just start rooting for her and how can you not, given the character she's saddled herself with.

Now, Josie has dreams! She wants to be a hard hitting, serious journalist and it's this desire that ultimately leads her into the most harrowing and terrifying experience she's ever been confronted with. Her boss, (The guy who thinks he looks like Han Solo in "Boogie Nights", I never remember his name.), picks her to go undercover at a local high school to penetrate the in crowd. (And let's be honest, who didn't want to do that in high school? Literally!) "THIS IS WHERE THE STORIES ARE!!!!" he screams like Buffalo Bill on a date! I swear to God, I half expected the loon to whip out a bottle of hand lotion and a poodle and toss Josie down a pit! The guy is...wacky.

But, poor Josie had what can accurately be described as a HAMMER high school experience. She was fat! Her face was a minefield of pustules!! Her hair, MY GOD!!! Hair hasn't looked this bad since the landlord in "Kingpin"!!! Braces made from the possessed bumper of "Christine"!! This girl had every quality that the in-crowd looked for in search of ridicule and man did they heap it on the poor girl to tune of "Josie Grossie" (The dumbest sounding stuff really hurts the worst and this flick serves if nothing if not a good reminder never to name your child anything that rhymes with anything!!) It was smart to show these scenes first, because you really kind of build sympathy for her. At the same time, it was some of the funniest scenes in the film, because lets face it extreme cruelty can only go one for long before it becomes hilarious. The Prom scene where she's standing in front of her house really nails just how horrible her life was.....just MEAN, man!

So, she enrolls in high school and immediately kicks into fifth gear trying to fit in with disastrous and predictable results. She wears the wrong things, she says EVERY wrong thing (Mostly due to some to the horrible advice of her friend played by Molly Shannon, who seems to be stuck in 1986.) and does her absolute best to not only be viewed a geek, but to fit right back in with the same group of social zeros that embraced her during her real high school years: The D&D set. She makes friends with the Helen Hunt look alike who played in "Deep Impact" by joining the Math club. Nothing special. Kind of trite.

But, this isn't to be as her boss forces her to break out of the comfortable and back into fitting in mode.

To do this, she gets help from her brother David Arquette. He's one of those guys that peaked in high school and now spends all of his time saying what if, like every loser who works at Burger King. Drew heading back to school is his big chance. He always wanted to play Major League Baseball, but because he had the horrible kissing disease, he missed his boat. So he enrolls in school to help his sister and fulfill his dreams of becoming a ball player. Most of the best laughs in the flick came from him and the best part is, there's not a drop of Dewey anywhere.

So now Josie is finally getting somewhere. Arquette is loved by everyone nearly instantly and he hypes up Josie as his ex-girlfriend (This premise, really isn't played for the kind sick, incestuous, laughs it could've been. Pity.) and people begin to take notice as she begins to make friends and influence people.

She also begins this thing with her English Teacher that never really connected enough to make you care for the guy, he's just the pretty boy that Josie is gonna get at the end as a consolation prize for years of formative abuse.

Whist this occurs, her pretty, but too smart and therefore UNPOPULAR friend gets steamrolled over and set up for Prom prank that's just real mean.

I'm not gonna ruin the ending, but it was kinda sweet, predictable, but sweet and yes it's a happy ending.

This flick kind of speaks to everyone who took shit during high school and if you were one of those people, give it a chance, it kind of....speaks to your inner geek.

LaneMyers