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Coinciding with the controversial appearance of its star's near-nude turns on the covers of Maxim and Bikini, Drive Me Crazy literally drove me crazy with a horrible, formula-driven script and a lead performance that was even worse. It's the tried-and-true story of a guy and girl that pretend to be in love in order to regain the affection of their exes, only to end up falling for each other. Oh, Christ – I hope that didn't ruin the ending for you. The name was changed from Next to You, presumably to include the smash hit `Crazy' from the saline-assisted teen pop star Britney Spears.
The girl is Nicole Maris (Melissa Joan Hart, Sabrina the Teenage Witch), the peppy, popular (read: annoying) senior responsible for organizing Timothy Zonin High School's Centennial events. Nicole lives with her single mom (Faye Grant, V) and has little contact with the father that ran out on them (Stephen Collins, 7th Heaven). She also contributes the school's news broadcast – called Time Zone – each morning at the beginning of the day. Nicole's biggest problem in life is that she is seriously crushing on TZ's star basketball player, Brad (Gabriel Carpenter). But don't worry – he asks her to the big Centennial dance.
The guy is Chase Hammond (Adrian Grenier, The Adventures of Sebastian Cole), the dark, brooding senior that thinks popularity is superfluous, referring to most students as `sheep.' He lives with his widower pop (William Converse, Kiss the Girls) and dates a gothy vamp named Dulcie (Ali Larter, Varsity Blues). A practical joker, Chase put orange dye in the school's sprinkler system and roared with laughter as the brightly dressed TZ `sheep' were doused with colored water. In his defense, orange is the school's color, and he was just being spirited.
Long story short, Brad dumps Nicole for a cheerleader from a rival school, while Chase is dumped by Dulcie because he doesn't want to talk all the time (and I thought goth chicks were above that). The dumpees band together to get their respective exes jealous. She gives him a mall make-over and takes him to basketball games, while he drags her to a club called The Pit to ponder stuff. They both fit in to their new roles way too easily, especially Chase, who in no time is cheering `GO! FIGHT! WIN!' at a school basketball game. I thought they might have been chanting ` GO FRIGHTWIG!' which would have been an interesting arc in the film.
Two points of interest in the film include the appearance of punk rockers The Donnas (as The Electro-Cutes, covering `Keep On Lovin' You,' no less) and a nifty video segment that a nerdy AV kid sneaks onto the Time Zone broadcast. There is also an interesting angle to the picture, in that Nicole and Chase are neighbors and former treehouse-mates that saw their friendship dissolve during middle school and the onset of popularity's importance. She remembers his mom dying, but was too cool to offer condolences at the time.
Drive Me Crazy is based on Todd Strasser's novel titled `How I Created My Perfect Prom Date' and adapted for the screen by Cookie's Fortune hack Rob Thomas. The nicest thing I can say about Hart's performance is that she does not have a face that was made for the big screen. Possibly radio, but not FM. She struggles to be merely adequate in her role, while the adorably talented Grenier is so painfully above this crappy material, it actually makes the movie much less enjoyable. And that is really saying something.
1:35 - PG-13 for teen alcohol consumption and drug use, and for mild adult language
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