Su Ann: #2

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10 Things I Hate About You (1999)





"I hate the way you talk to me, and the way you cut your hair. I hate the way you drive my car. I hate it when you stare. I hate your big dumb combat boots, and the way you read my mind. I hate you so much it makes me sick; it even makes me rhyme. I hate it, I hate the way you're always right. I hate it when you lie. I hate it when you make me laugh, even worse when you make me cry. I hate it when you're not around, and the fact that you didn't call. But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you. Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all."

-- Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles)


decided, on a whim (okay not really, i was going through the DVD stack at A's place) to watch this movie again for the fourth time! 10 Things I Hate About You rates among the top 5 teen movies on my list, after Mean Girls. what? i have my bimbo chick flick moments. plus Mean Girls was awesome okay! i can totally still quote lines from that movie. but i disgress.

10 Things I Hate About You is a 1999 movie starring Julia Stiles and the late Heath Ledger. and possibly the best scene in this movie was when Heath Ledger belted out "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" at the school field :))




so here's the gist of the movie in a paragraph, c&p-ed from reelviews.com:

Kat (Julia Stiles) and Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) are sisters, but, despite sharing the same parents, their personalities are polar opposites. Bianca, the younger, is pretty, popular, and shallow. Kat, the older one, is a rebel without a cause, a girl who is described kindly as being "incapable of human interaction." Kat and Bianca's father, Walter (Larry Miller), has one hard and fast rule for his daughters: Bianca cannot begin dating until her sister does. This represents a major problem for the socially-adept Bianca, since Kat shows no inclination whatsoever to date. As the prom approaches, Bianca finds herself as the object of two boys' affections: cool, vain Joey Donner (Andrew Keegan) and kind, somewhat shy Cameron James (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Working as reluctant allies, Joey and Cameron pick out a potential date for Kat: Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger), the local bad boy. They reason that Kat might find him too great a challenge to refuse, and, once she starts going out with him, Bianca will be free to date one of them. But getting Kat and Patrick together proves to be a difficult chore, and, when he realizes that he genuinely likes her, Patrick must go to extraordinary lengths to tame the shrew.




10 Things I Hate About You is top-heavy with the references to Shakespeare. The Bard's sonnets are being taught in English class, so we get to hear bits and pieces of them. A couple of would-be lovebirds enjoy quoting from "Macbeth" and dressing like they belong in the 16th century. The main characters have last names like "Verona" and "Stratford", and their first names are variations of their "Taming" counterparts: Kate becomes Kat and Petruchio becomes Patrick. It's not as clever as Shakespeare in Love, but, as a way to sneak in literary asides, it works.

the second best thing about the movie (after Heath Ledger), though, is the dialogues! better than Mean Girls, really.

patrick: what is it with this chick? she has beer-flavored nipples?

Walter Stratford: [Bianca and Chastity are sneaking past Bianca's father] Shoulda used the window!
Bianca: Hi Daddy!
Walter Stratford: Hi... where're we going?
Bianca: Well, if you must know... a small study group of friends.
Walter Stratford: Otherwise known as an orgy?
Chastity: Mr. Stratford, it's just a party!
Walter Stratford: And hell is just a sauna.

Joey: Mr. Morgan, is there any chance we could get Kat to take her Midol *before* she comes to class?
Mr. Morgan: Someday, you gonna get bitch-slapped and I'm not gonna do a thing to stop it.

[when asked if he'll date Katarina]
Wimpy Loser: Maybe if we were the last two people alive, and there were no sheep. Are there sheep?

Walter Stratford: What are the two house rules? Number One: No dating till you graduate. Number Two: No dating till you graduate.

i know it all sounds really shallow and mindless but a teen movie is a teen movie! they're supposed to be funny, and laughed at ... and enjoyed :) this movie is better than most other teen movies out there -- it's got attitude and witty dialogues and Heath Ledger. so watch it, and watch it again if you think it's any good! i'm off to watch "walk the line" now! :D

i end this post with one last pic of Ledger + Keegan:




p/s: guys, when you post something new, be sure to label them under your name. happy holidays! :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Favorite movie of all time. He definitely come into character for his part (Heath). I could watch this movie over and over.

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