Love Don't Cost a Thing (2003)

User Rating:

4.5/10   

Director:

Troy Beyer

Writers (WGA):

Michael Swerdlick (screenplay)
Troy Beyer (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

12 December 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance | Drama

Tagline:

Love Don't Co$t A Thing but it pays to be yourself

Plot:

Highschool loser (Cannon) pays a cheerleader (Milian) to pose as his girlfriend so he can be considered cool. Remake of 1987' Can't Buy Me Love, starring Patrick Dempsey. |

Plot Keywords:

Love | Cheerleader | Remake | High School Basketball | Teenage Boy

Awards:

6 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sun. July 12

10:00 PM

OXYGEN

Cast

Nick Cannon	...	Alvin Johnson
Jordan Burg	...	Little Boy
Jackie Benoit	...	Old Lady
George Cedar	...	Old Man
Gay Thomas-Wilson	...	Judy Morgan (as Gay Thomas Wilson)
Al Thompson	...	Ted
Sam Sarpong	...	Kadeem
Nichole Mercedes Robinson	...	Yvonne Freeman (as Nichole Robinson)
Melissa Schuman	...	Zoe Parks
Imani Parks	...	Mia
Ian Chidlaw	...	Eddie
J.B. Ghuman Jr.	...	JB (as JB Guhman)
Christina Milian	...	Paris Morgan
Russell Howard	...	Anthony
Elimu Nelson	...	Dru Hilton

Also Known As:

Can't Buy Me Love (USA) (working title)
If You Were My Girl (USA) (working title)
Love Don't Co$t a Thing (USA) (promotional title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sexual content/humor. (edited version)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Brazil:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Singapore:PG | Germany:6 | UK:15 | USA:PG-13 (edited for re-rating) (certificate #40254) | Italy:T

Filming Locations:

Long Beach Polytechnic High School - 1600 Atlantic Avenue, Long Beach, California, USA

Company:

Alcon Entertainment

Goofs:

Continuity: At the dinner table while Clarence is talking to Alvin, Clarence has a fork in his hand, then in the next shot he isn't holding anything.

Quotes:

Aretha Johnson: Mama! Alvin's taking drugs!

Movie Connections:

References "Family Matters" (1989)

Soundtrack:

Air Force Ones

A Surprisingly pleasant movie with good performances

My thoughts for Love Don't Cost a Thing at first were not good. I really thought this film was going to be another piece of teenage garbage since there were very few teenager flicks this year. I however was pleasantly surprised to be proved wrong tonight as I walked into the 9:30pm showing of Love Don't Cost a Thing.

The movie is about a loser kid named Alvin played perfectly by Nick Cannon. Alvin like most losers always wanted to feel and be like the popular guys at school. I know what everyone is saying we have seen this film before. Yes I will admit we did but the script took this ordinary plot and added things too it. It has a large touch of reality to it but again in the end suffers from the typical happy ending. Well to continue back to what the film is about, Alvin falls in love with one of the most popular and prettiest girls in the school. This girl is named Paris played by the beautiful Christina Milian. Paris gets in trouble when she is riding around town in her mothers new Escalade when she gets into an accident and has no choice but bring it to a local shop to get it fixed. Paris finds out the cost is $3000 and she is broke. Alvin knows how to fix cars and makes an offer with Paris that he will fix her car if she pretends she and him are dating. This is where a heartfelt, sometimes serious and real life movie begins but sadly ends with the typical Hollywood Ending.

The acting for this type of movie was great. The lead role played by Nick Cannon was right on target. I am really starting to enjoy his work. I thought Drumline, Nick's first movie, was decent although it was basically for music lovers. His character in that film was very likeable, and so was his character in this film. His transformation from Dork to Cool Guy seemed so natural, which was very nice to see. Christina Milian was pretty good as the main female lead. This was her first movie and her performance was pretty strong. I think she did a good job. Steve Harvey's character I did not care for. He played Alvin's father in the movie and reminded me a lot Eugene Levy's character in American Pie. He was obviously just put into the film for comedic effect but I feel this did not work well.

Michael Swerdlick & Troy Beyer wrote the script for this film. They did a good job with taking the normal loser kid becomes a cool kid script and adding a lot of new scenes to this film. But like I said previously, they both seem to fall for that typical Hollywood ending. The script had a very real life feel to it and I can picture most of this actually occurring in real life. I can honestly relate to the feelings and emotions of the characters. I also wish that one day someone would make a film about a dork kid who becomes a cool kid and try not to make it a comedy. This film attempted to do this on the most part but like I said above they threw Steve Harvey in this film to try to get a few chuckles. Troy Beyer was also the director of this film; I think she did a good job directing especially since this is only her second film.

So I walked out of the theater feeling good. The film put a smile on my face and I really felt I could relate to this film. It is a typical film for the most part, which in Hollywood does not really mean anything anymore. It did however take the normal script and add some new things to it to spice it up and make it seem more like a reality than fiction. This movie is not an Academy Award winner or anything but it's a decent Hollywood release that many should like. The critics once again panned this film, which does not surprise me. They always like the Independent films, which I normally always agree with them on but when it comes to mainstream Hollywood films they are usually wrong. So In conclusion, I liked this movie for the most part, it did have a few problems here and there but all in all I really enjoyed it. My final rating for Love Don't Cost A Thing is a 7/10.