Barrymore again displays her remarkable ability to get the audience rooting for her singular blend of vulnerability and sunny optimism.
Never Been Kissed (1999)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:79
Fresh:44
Rotten:35
Average Rating:5.7/10
Consensus: Unoriginal and unremarkable high school satire adds little to the genre.
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: Drew Barrymore gets what others only dream about in this charming, fun comedy: a second chance to right the wrongs of high school! At 25, Josie Geller is the youngest copy editor at the Chicago... Drew Barrymore gets what others only dream about in this charming, fun comedy: a second chance to right the wrongs of high school! At 25, Josie Geller is the youngest copy editor at the Chicago Sun-Times, and the obvious choice to go undercover on a story about what the "cool kids" of high school are up to. A dorky teen dubbed "Grossie Josie" the first time around, this time Josie is required to make friends with the popular kids in order to deliver on her assignment. Unfortunately, now that Josie has come into her own as an intelligent young woman with a career and a brain in her head, those aren't the people she's interested in; as she begins to develop feelings for a teacher she's been ordered to portray badly, things start to get really complicated! Will Josie redeem herself from the mistakes she made in her high school years, or will she find herself repeating them all over again? [More]
Starring: Drew Barrymore, David Arquette, Michael Vartan, Leelee Sobieski
Starring: Drew Barrymore, David Arquette, Michael Vartan, Leelee Sobieski, Jeremy Jordan, Garry Marshall, John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon, Jessica Alba, Sean Whalen
Director: Raja Gosnell
Director: Raja Gosnell
Composer: David Newman
Reviews for Never Been Kissed
The script efficiently contrives a spiral of dilemmas and challenges to bring about Josie's ultimate blossoming.
It's hard to suppress the beauty and charm of Drew Barrymore, but in allowing her to play an air-headed defective, Never Been Kissed manages to do this.
The most exhilarating American movie I have seen this year -- which isn't saying much.
The material is pretty much the same as She's All That and the other recent high school movies, but Barrymore has the big screen stuff to pull it off.
This is an okay date flick. It's somewhat forgettable, like high school should be, but possessing a few moments it'll be tough to get out of your head.
The less Never Been Kissed forces its material, the more enjoyable it is.
Barrymore demonstrates an acute sensitivity to the angst of adolescence, and handles it with kid gloves.
The deft script and solid performances turn what could have been empty piffle into remarkably entertaining piffle that'll leave you smiling.
Never Been Kissed, like so many coulda-shoulda-woulda-been-good movies, starts out strong. Then it loses its nerve in the third act, substituting a fuzzy emotional spectacle for a coherent conclusion.
Thanks to Barrymore's goodhearted presence, Josie's comic emotional journey has plenty of mass appeal.
This kind of dippy, silly drivel has no right to succeed, yet it does...
Drew Barrymore has been well cast as someone who doesn't act her age.
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