The Hottie and the Nottie is somewhat of a conundrum; it is a romantic comedy that is neither moving nor funny. It attempts moments of gross-out humor, but holds back from going for an R rating. And for having a target audience of teenage girls, it lacks characters that most girls that age will be able to identify with.
The last two films that Paris Hilton has appeared in have received some of the lowest ratings in the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Pledge This! received a user rating of 1.6, ranking it at #7 in IMDb's Bottom 100, while Bottoms Up was rated 1.9 and rang in at #22 in the Bottom 100. It appears as though Hilton is lined up for a hat trick with The Hottie and the Nottie, having managed to hammer out three terrible films in a row.
This is not to say all the blame should be placed on Hilton. She does a decent job with what she had to work with. But scriptwriter Heidi Ferrer manages to cram more teen movie clichés and unfunny moments into ninety minutes than any reasonable person could.
The film begins with Nate Cooper (Joel David Moore) remembering first grade and his first experience of love, with Cristabelle Abbott (Hilton). Then the film flashes forward twenty years to an older, sadder version of Nate, accompanied by unnecessary character narration a sure red flag for a bad movie.
After his girlfriend leaves him, Nate decides to move from Maine to California to find his first-grade crush. Somehow he is in touch with Arno Blout (The Greg Wilson), from first grade, a disgusting mess who lives with his mom. In less than 20 seconds, Arno quickly fills Nate in on all that he's missed in the past twenty years; Cristabelle is hot and single, but that is only because she lives with her ugly friend, June Phigg (Christine Lakin), also from first grade! OMG! So begins Nate's quest to conquer Cristabelle, aided by Arno's stalker file, which tracks her every move. After their lives literally collide, it doesn't take long for Nate to find out what a nice girl Cristabelle is and how she creepily remembers him, too. Of course they cannot be together because that would be a fifteen-minute movie, so she confides that she will not go out with anyone until June gets a boyfriend. Nate vows to find June someone so he can cozy up to Cristabelle.
From here, the film devolves into a banal take on "The Taming of the Shrew" as Nate tries to find someone who will go out with the ugly duckling of a friend, only to find himself suddenly in love with her the instant she gets a makeover. Try not to count the number of loose ends or the implausible leaps of believability -- there are simply too many.
Probably the saddest piece in this Jenga game of absurdity is the director, Tom Putnam. Just five years ago he was named "One of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film" by Filmmaker Magazine. But "fresh" isn't a word that comes to mind when describing this film.
The last two films that Paris Hilton has appeared in have received some of the lowest ratings in the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Pledge This! received a user rating of 1.6, ranking it at #7 in IMDb's Bottom 100, while Bottoms Up was rated 1.9 and rang in at #22 in the Bottom 100. It appears as though Hilton is lined up for a hat trick with The Hottie and the Nottie, having managed to hammer out three terrible films in a row.
This is not to say all the blame should be placed on Hilton. She does a decent job with what she had to work with. But scriptwriter Heidi Ferrer manages to cram more teen movie clichés and unfunny moments into ninety minutes than any reasonable person could.
The film begins with Nate Cooper (Joel David Moore) remembering first grade and his first experience of love, with Cristabelle Abbott (Hilton). Then the film flashes forward twenty years to an older, sadder version of Nate, accompanied by unnecessary character narration a sure red flag for a bad movie.
After his girlfriend leaves him, Nate decides to move from Maine to California to find his first-grade crush. Somehow he is in touch with Arno Blout (The Greg Wilson), from first grade, a disgusting mess who lives with his mom. In less than 20 seconds, Arno quickly fills Nate in on all that he's missed in the past twenty years; Cristabelle is hot and single, but that is only because she lives with her ugly friend, June Phigg (Christine Lakin), also from first grade! OMG! So begins Nate's quest to conquer Cristabelle, aided by Arno's stalker file, which tracks her every move. After their lives literally collide, it doesn't take long for Nate to find out what a nice girl Cristabelle is and how she creepily remembers him, too. Of course they cannot be together because that would be a fifteen-minute movie, so she confides that she will not go out with anyone until June gets a boyfriend. Nate vows to find June someone so he can cozy up to Cristabelle.
From here, the film devolves into a banal take on "The Taming of the Shrew" as Nate tries to find someone who will go out with the ugly duckling of a friend, only to find himself suddenly in love with her the instant she gets a makeover. Try not to count the number of loose ends or the implausible leaps of believability -- there are simply too many.
Probably the saddest piece in this Jenga game of absurdity is the director, Tom Putnam. Just five years ago he was named "One of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film" by Filmmaker Magazine. But "fresh" isn't a word that comes to mind when describing this film.