Never gets past high school stereotypes

If it weren't for the fact that it's directed by Home Alone/Harry Potter hitmaker Chris Columbus, it would be easy to dismiss I Love You, Beth Cooper as just another insipid teen comedy that has been Superbadded-up with underage drinking and a little raunch.

But with Columbus' name attached (his last directing job was the 2005 screen version of Rent), I Love You, Beth Cooper becomes a little harder to write off.

Well, not much.

Beginning with an intentionally awkward valedictory speech by Buffalo Grove High's über-geek Denis Cooverman (Paul Rust), the film quickly turns unintentionally, and unrelentingly, awkward.

Premise: Denis has been crushing on classmate Beth (Hayden Panettiere) since seventh grade, but she doesn't know he exists. Egged on by his best friend, Rich (Jack T. Carpenter), Denis uses his moment at the podium to declare his love and also to blurt out a few unfiltered observations concerning several other students.

Embarrassment ensues, and then an unlikely night of soul-baring and boozing, slugfests and car wrecks, as Denis and Beth, accompanied by Rich and by Beth's two cheerleader pals, discover their "real" selves.

Despite Denis' supposed ability to speak the truth and elicit it from others, I Love You, Beth Cooper never gets close to unmasking its high school stereotypes. And the charmlessness of its central characters - Rust's charisma-challenged Denis, Panettiere's Barbie-hard and vacuous Beth - makes this putative farce all the more difficult to endure.

Not funny, not fun.

Contact movie critic Steven Rea

at 215-854-5629 or srea@phillynews.com.

Read his blog, "On Movies Online," at http://www.philly.com/philly/

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