Who's "The DUFF" In Your Life?

The DUFF (2015)

Rated PG-13

Starring Mae Whitman, Robbie Amell, Bella Thorne, Bianca Santos, Skyler Samuels, Nick Eversman, Ken Jeong, Romany Malco,

Directed by Ari Sandel

The Story:

Bianca (Whitman) is entering her senior year and she gets stuck with writing the article of what homecoming means to her by Mr. Arthur (Jeong). Naturally, Bianca is that one girl that has no interest in homecoming or the assignment. She does however, have a major crush on Toby (Eversman) and would do anything to get to know him. Enter her obnoxious jock "friend", Wesley (Amell) who is going to teach her how to stop being the DUFF and start being herself.

Okay, I suppose I owe the explanation of the acronym DUFF:

Designated Ugly Fat Friend.

:)

Once Bianca learns that she is the DUFF of her two best friends (Santos & Samuels) needless to say, she's not too happy.

And when the evil queen of the school (Thorne) tries to stop Bianca from being friendly with Wesley, the claws really come out.

So what do you think, sound familiar?

Taking equal parts of Whatever It Takes, She's All That, Mean Girls and countless other high school ugly duckling/beautiful swan movies, The DUFF adds to the catalog with another winner.

Because face it, when these are done well, they are a lot of fun and add another time capsule of "life in high school" to a long list of cinematic cult favorites.

It's a genre I enjoy watching, and normally they are fun to share with the kids.

This is where I pull out my soapbox and mention that this film uses a bit more language and innuendo than I would have preferred in a PG-13 film, so it gets knocked down because of it.

I still think it's a lazy screenwriter trap to be explicit, but the world is full of potty mouths, so what can you do?

I would have liked to add this to favorite films of the year, but I'm taking it down a notch for the language.

Still a pretty funny movie though.

Final Grade: B

R.I.P. : Paul Walker, 1973-2013

Well, that's the very definition of Hollywood irony...

: /

So by now everyone's heard the news that Paul Walker died in a fiery car crash as a passenger.  His driver?  A professional race car driver.

:: sigh ::

I suppose, sadly, in the day of the internet and fake death hoaxes, the first thing you have to do when  you see these kinds of news stories, you need to verify with several reputable news sites first.

However, even those can be duped rather easily.

When you see it reported on Twitter though, especially by Paul's representatives and all of his co-stars, it's real.

And it's sad.

The only positive I take from his passing is at least he didn't take his own life.  I grow weary of stars that take their own life, throwing away whatever potential future they had for themselves and years of entertainment that they had for their fans.

An accident?  Those happen.

Still tragic.

So then why do fans mourn when celebrities pass away when hundreds die everyday?

I would imagine it's the sense of connection.  These stars brought friends and family together, for 2 hours at a time while we enjoy their movies.

Looking over the movies he's made, there's quite a few good movies on the list.

Naturally, the Fast and Furious franchise is first and foremost the obvious place to point for a career retrospective.

I had the great pleasure to introduce the family to the franchise earlier this year as I had them watch the first 4 movies and then re-watch Fast Five.

Sure, Paul was probably never going to win an Academy Award, but he gave 100% in his movies, and at the end of the day, I was entertained.

That's doing your job, and for that he should be commended!

Other favorites over the years:

She's All That ~ Playing the villain that bets Freddy Prinze Jr. that he can't make Rachel Leigh Cook a prom queen.

Timeline ~ An underrated Richard Donner time travel movie.  Recommended if you've never seen it.

Eight Below ~ A Disney film based on a true story of a team that is forced to abandon their sled dogs to the elements.

I suppose the question now becomes...

What will Universal do with the Fast and Furious franchise?

Was 7 set to be the last?  Were they going to retire and turn the franchise over to some new crew members?

No easy decisions to be made for a franchise that was actually getting better with each new installment after the main characters all reunited.

Condolences to his family and friends and other fans.

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