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The Summer Movie Posse’s advice to ‘Beth Cooper’: Get real!

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As you may have noticed, it’s Summer Movie Posse week at the Big Picture blog, where we get the real skinny on the summer movies from a bunch of very savvy teenagers who watch a dozen or so trailers with me -- and then freely opine about their likes and dislikes. (To learn more about this year’s Posse, start here.) Today we turn our attention to ‘I Love You, Beth Cooper,’ a new film directed by Chris Columbus (his first since ‘Rent’) that hits theaters on July 10.

Adapted from his novel by Larry Doyle, a one-time ‘Simpsons’ writer, it’s the story of a geeky high school valedictorian who proclaims his undying love for the hottest girl in school in a very public way -- during his valedictory speech. The twist: He actually gets her attention, in a good way, in a new twist on the beauty falling for the beast tale.

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Judging from the trailer, the film is crammed with slapstick comic escapades and hot-high-school-chick steaminess. When the nerdy valedictorian is shopping for party favors with the object of his affection, she samples a cupcake, murmuring approvingly. When the film’s geek hero, played by Paul Rust, earnestly notes that his mother often says ‘Ymmm,’ the hot chick -- played by Hayden Panettiere -- offers up her most erotic ‘Yuuhhmmmmm,’ prompting the boy to respond: ‘Not like that.’

What was most intriguing about the Posse’s response was that, unlike most trailers they watched, they didn’t judge ‘Beth Cooper’ on its comic merits but on its believability. It’s one of the problems with a comedy with an outlandish premise that is set in the exact world real high schoolers inhabit -- they’re far more concerned about authenticity than they would be with films set in a museum or a distant galaxy. The believability issue was too big to overcome. The Posse’s score (out of a possible 60) was a 32. Here are some of their comments:

Jasmine Jafari, 15: ‘OK, so first off, this would never, ever happen.’

Alex Alexiev, 16: ‘Very unrealistic. I know it’s funny, but it felt totally unreal. I just couldn’t personally connect to any of the characters.’

Molly Philbin, 15: ‘I think it could happen.’

Alex: ‘You’re just kidding yourself.’

Jasmine: ‘I would think one problem they’d have in getting people to see this is the fact there is already so much low self-esteem in the general population that it would turn people off. I mean, if you identify with the main character--the geek--and then you realize it’s actually an actor paid to pretend he’s a geek, I’m not sure why people would want to play along.’

Ben Sassoon, 17: ‘It was weak. It felt like such a cliched patchwork of jokes from so many other high school movies I’ve seen before. And that actor, who plays the geek. He looked way too old to be in high school.’

Molly: ‘Yeah, like 30 at least!’

COMING NEXT: The Posse’s surprising selection for their favorite summer comedy trailer. Hint: It wasn’t ‘Night at the Museum.’

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