He's All That... Or is He?

In He’s All That, Rae acts alongside Tanner Buchanan, Peyton Meyer, and, to the surprise of many, Kourtney Kardashian. Buchanan has appeared in shows like “Cobra Kai,” “Girl Meets World,” and “Fuller House.” Meyer appeared in “Girl Meets World,” along with Buchanan and has also been in “Dog With a Blog,” and “American Housewives.” Kourtney Kardashian, whom we did not expect to see in this movie, is a social media influencer with over 230 million followers and a friend of Rae’s. Although she’s only in a few scenes, she definitely made an impression on the audience, with her scenes being one of the most discussed parts of the movie (aside from all the errors).

Padgett, Rae's character, is a social media influencer who is quickly gaining fame. At the beginning of this movie, Padgett bakes a treat for her boyfriend Jordan, played by Meyer. She, along with a friend, live streams herself surprising him with the desserts. But shockingly, she catches him cheating on her with another girl, causing her to have a meltdown. Unbeknownst to her, though, her "friend" never ended the livestream, and her entire rampage is watched by thousands. Immediately, she goes viral- for all the wrong reasons.

Padgett promptly receives a call from her manager, Jessica Miles Torres, played by Kourtney Kardashian. Torres tells Padgett that if she doesn't stop losing followers, she would drop her as a client. This is when Padgett knew she needed to make a change. At school the next day, she sat with her friends and made a plan: if Padgett could turn the nerdiest kid in school into a prom king, it would cause her to gain popularity, earn her management back, and regain her confidence.

After searching for boys, they decided on Cameron, Buchanan’s character. Cameron always wears a beanie, has long hair (which is clearly a wig), and loves photography. When we first meet Cameron, he is shown taking a picture of the inside of a trash can, with his friend making fun of him. Somehow that made Padgett and her entourage say, “Yup. He’s the one.”

This movie had a $20 million budget, which is much more than the original, although it didn’t seem like it. There were some obvious -- and probably easy to fix -- green screen errors, including one in the karaoke/dancing scene at her friend's pool party. Rae was busting out some sick dance moves, but her arm got cut off for a whole 2 seconds from the green screen. Another thing I noticed was that when Padgett first woke up to her snot bubble video going viral, her phone didn’t even turn on or ring, but she ‘answered’ it immediately. Yet another mistake occurred when she was handing out fliers about voting for her for prom queen. She wasn’t even handing out papers, she was essentially just putting her fist out at extras and smiling. Rae had an entire stack of papers, but didn’t give them to anyone, a very strange choice on the director’s part. One thing that really confused me was Cameron’s love for horses, which was mentioned maybe once or twice throughout the whole movie. For some reason, at the end he comes into prom riding a horse? I think I missed the struggle of transporting that thing.

I also wish they would’ve mentioned what the plan was more, since I kept thinking to myself while watching it, “what is the point of this again?” Another thing I found fascinating was that Padgett's Mom was actually the ‘nerd- turned-prom queen’ from the original She’s All That, Laney Boggs. Something that makes it even more interesting is that they didn't cast her as her original character. I think this was to help separate the two movies a little more, but I still think it wasn’t a great call. Many people, including myself, were hoping it would show Laney all grown-up, but that wasn’t the case. If they wanted to separate the movies, why would they cast her again in the first place?

I tried to keep in mind while watching that this is a remake, not a sequel. I almost wonder why they didn’t name this movie “The Addison Rae Movie,” because that's what everyone knows it as anyways. Overall, I feel like these are the worst parts of the movie, even though the plot and overall theme have been so overdone, even before the original She’s All That came out.

Even with all of these errors, I still enjoyed this movie for a few reasons. The plot might be unoriginal and overused, but compared to the original, I really enjoyed the modern spin they put on things. For example, instead of the main character being a popular jock, they made her into a social media star, which is way more relevant to today’s world. Since Rae is a social media influencer in real life, I feel this role was perfect for her, or really any other TikTok star looking to start acting.

Overall, I don’t think this movie is as bad as people are making it out to be. Of course, some people are going to find the negative of Rae and her acting no matter what. Sure, there are some green screen errors and awkward scenes and plot holes, but for Addison Rae's first movie, I think He's All That was a success.