I Love You, Beth Cooper DVD Review

“I Love You, Beth Cooper.” This goofy comedy tells the story about a nerdy senior Denis Cooverman (Paul Rust) on the brink of high school graduation. He is the valedictorian for his class and uses his voice to his advantage by professing his love for the school’s most popular cheerleader, Beth Cooper (Hayden Panettiere.) While he gets his moment to shine and finally let the girl of his dreams know the secret he’s been sitting on for years, he also has just dug his own grave. Beth’s boyfriend, Shawn, is a hot-headed meat head who isn’t pleased at his comments and has his own plans for revenge. And so starts an evening Denis won’t forget as his graduation party brings Beth into his life along with many other adventures that she has in store for him and his friends.

Released in theaters back in July this film wasn’t met with critical praise, most not believing it was anything special or even original. It was hands-down goofy though. That’s for sure. Over the top, silly and ridiculous, but still entertaining. You can’t help rooting for the underdog and hope that nerdy guys like Denis can get the hot girl in the end.

The teens’ evening is beyond wild, and Beth’s wildchild ways take them to gas stations, the high school, even the woods where angry raccoons await. All in all not bad for a movie that took no pride in trying to create a more realistic type of high school movie. But then again, how many of them are nowadays? It’s Panettiere’s first major role in a movie and whether or not she ended up pleased with it is yet to be seen. I guess it depends on how much she was aware of the goofy comedy she was making and how much she didn’t think it would come off that way.

The Verdict:  Despite the fact that the DVD does come with a lot of pretty good and actually funny special features I’d have to say this one is a rental.  There is an alternate ending, some behind-the-scenes features, a few deleted scenes a more that that may make the purchase a bit more worthwhile.