Whatever It Takes

With the glut of sweet romances, scary movies and party flicks flooding the cineplex, it's become pretty obvious we're getting to the end of the whole teen dream canon of cinema circa 2000. If

Friday, March 24th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

With the glut of sweet romances, scary movies and party flicks flooding the cineplex, it's become pretty obvious we're getting to the end of the whole teen dream canon of cinema circa 2000. If only!

As these things go, this is probably just the tip of the iceberg.

There's been teen Shakespeare, teen Jane Austen and now "Whatever It Takes" interprets the legend of Cyrano de Bergerac. Which (if anyone can even remember that far back) was already done very cleverly in 1987's "Roxanne," with those old fogeys Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah.

This go 'round it's Ryan (Shane West) in the role of Cyrano, who idolizes the seemingly unattainable Ashley (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, who's starting to make a career of playing popular brat roles). Meanwhile, dumb jock Chris (James Franco) lusts after Ryan's best platonic pal Maggie (Marla Sokoloff).

The two guys make a deal to help each other get the girls of their dreams, this time by e-mail and computer-generated fake phone calls rather than by the original Cyrano's love letters.

From the opening credits where we see Ms. O'Keefe putting on lipstick in close-up ("Pretty in Pink," anyone?), "Whatever" tries to pay homage to the classic genre of teen films.

What results is just a watered-down version of the same. There's the wacky high school party, the dumb jock's ulterior motive, the "plain" girl who ends up being prettier than the "pretty" girl could ever hope to be.

There's the so-called unpopular kids getting it over the popular kids. There's the big prom finale. There's even the adorable geek sidekicks.

Unfortunately, "Whatever It Takes" is a must-see only if your particular crush is Mr. West, Ms. Sokoloff, Mr. Franco or Ms. O'Keefe.

Although the leads are appealing, you're better off watching them for free on the little screen, in "Once and Again," "The Practice," "Freaks and Geeks" and "Nash Bridges," respectively.