I Love You, Beth Cooper
for crude and sexual content, language, some teen drinking and drug references, and brief violence.
Reviewed by: Eric Hernandez
CONTRIBUTOR
| Moral Rating: | Very Offensive |
| Moviemaking Quality: |
|
| Primary Audience: | Teens |
| Genre: | Romance Comedy |
| Length: | 1 hr. 42 min. |
| Year of Release: | 2009 |
| USA Release: |
July 10, 2009 (wide—1,900 theaters) DVD: November 3, 2009 |
| Featuring |
Hayden Panettiere (Beth Cooper) Lauren London, Samm Levine, Alan Ruck, Cynthia Stevenson, Shawn Roberts, Paul Rust, Lauren Storm, Andrea Savage, Jack Carpenter, Marie Avgeropoulos, Anna Mae Routledge, Maggie Ma, Pat Finn, Brendan Penny, Josh Emerson, Jared Keeso, Darien Provost, Brandon Barton, John J. Gulayets |
| Director |
Chris Columbus — “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Home Alone,” “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” |
| Producer | 1492 Pictures, Bece Canada Productions, Michael Barnathan, Jennifer Blum, Chris Columbus, Michael Flynn, Mark Radcliffe |
| Distributor | Fox Atomic |
After directing the wildly successful first two installments of the “Harry Potter” franchise, one struggles to find a reason why director Chris Columbus would waste his time directing a movie as bland and forgettable as “I Love You, Beth Cooper”, which is based on a novel of the same name. While “Beth Cooper” is trite and poorly made, it is also raunchy and inappropriate.
Denis Cooverman (Paul Rust), a nerdy high school student, has harbored a crush on cheerleader Beth Cooper (Hayden Panettiere) for years. While he’s never worked up the courage to speak to her, he finally proclaims his undying love for her so at the worst possible time—during his valedictorian speech. He, also, badmouths Beth’s popular boyfriend Kevin in his lovesick rant, who vows revenge on the nerd. Beth, however, thinks his speech was sweet, and shows up at his door later with her friends to take him out for the night of his life.
The film’s sexual content is pervasive. There is so much, indeed, that it would be pointless to detail every single instance in the movie. A few instances: in a locker room, Beth strips off her top for Denis, who in turn sheds his boxer shorts, with nudity quickly visible. A girl is seen blowing up a condom. Denis’s friend Rich suggest that they have a sword fight using their erections. Rich also is seen in bed with two women, apparently having had a threesome. A coach suggestively rubs a female student’s rear end. On and on and on it goes.
Violence, while portrayed in a comedic fashion, borders on the intense at times. Denis is violently pummeled and pounded numerous times by Beth’s boyfriend and his buffed-up entourage. As a result of these encounters, Denis becomes increasingly bruised throughout the film. A rough fistfight breaks out at a party.
There is also a lot of language for a PG-13 movie, including one F-word and quite a few S-words. Numerous milder profanities also spring up. Most seriously, G*D is used about five times.
In the end, “I Love You, Beth Cooper” is crude, offensive and poorly made. You would be hard-pressed to find a bigger waste of your time.
Violence: Moderate / Profanity: Moderate / Sex/Nudity: Heavy
See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.
none
- Several scenes where swearing is included.
- Throughout the whole movie there are accusations of being gay. There is a scene of the mom and dad together in the car doing something that anyone besides them should see. There are a few references to condoms being used, and the movie portrays that in order to be living life to the fullest, you have to have sex with as many people as you can.
- Ever since the very beginning of the movie, Beth Cooper’s boyfriend has hounded down one of the main characters. There are fight scenes, which some kids may not want to see. The viewers watch as two-inch thorns are pulled from the main guys face (I forgot his name, sorry.)
- Alcohol is included; at the parties and when they group goes to the store to buy beer. They are underage, but end up getting the beer because Beth Cooper gave the cashier “a kiss that would make his pants wet every time he thought about it.”
In my opinion, the only good parts about this movie was the fight scenes, and the awesome hummer that the army guys drove. There were about two funny scenes out of the whole thing. So, in my opinion… don’t waste your time to go see this movie. It’s not worth it.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3