Crazy/Beautiful
A spoiled little rich girl falls hard for a poor but ambitious Latino boy from East L.A., and must battle her own destructive demons to keep their relationship intact. Can you say "after-school special"?
Story
"Aw, you so crazy!" high schooler Nicole (Kirsten Dunst) is a pampered congressman's daughter determined to rebel against Dad (Bruce Davison), the authorities, and anyone who attempts to stop her booze-drinking, reckless-driving, class-ditching ways. Football star Carlos (newcomer Jay Hernandez) spends long hours on the bus to school, determined to get good grades and make it into pilots' school at the Naval Academy. After they meet and sparks fly, he struggles to keep his head and not lose sight of his goals while trying to calm Nicole's drinking and drugging urges. But despite his best intentions, Nicole's all-consuming problems and Carlos's own attraction to this wild child distract him from everything he's worked so hard for, to the dismay of his tra not screaming, shrieking or crying about her privileged life. That, or trying to get Carlos in bed (in full view of Dad).
Direction
Not only is this movie slow and draggy, we're subjected to unbelievable and way-too-long scenes that would never ever happen. Like, Malibu blondies Nicole (sans bra) and her half-dressed friend (with the bra but sans the shirt) stop off at an open-air market in East L.A. after a nighttime football game and wind up dirty dancing with the men hanging out by the taco stand. Are you kidding? There could be so much more done with the differences between the teens' cultures and their families' feelings, but more time is spent showing the couple romping on the beach, making out, driving around, making out, flying a plane, making out…we get it, already. And the contrived, let's-tie-up-the-loose-ends-quick ending is an insult, with the characters going against everything they've had you believing they believed in for two hours.
Bottom Line
A clichéd, sappy, silly entry in the genre of creative-teens-in-love romance to which teenage girls will no doubt flock, but'll give normal people a love hangover.