Review of Love Don't Cost a Thing

Actress Troy Beyer directs this urban teen remake of Can't Buy Me Love from 1987. The film stars Nick Cannon (from Drumline) as a high school average Joe, who yearns to be popular. New pop music hottie Christina Milian is the girl that needs his help in exchange for showing him the ropes to popularity. While Beyer employs many clichés in telling her formulaic story, Cannon and Milian are genuinely likable enough to make the journey worthwhile and not just another retread. Cannon's road to popularity is paved with the usual obstacles: lack of self confidence, nerdy friends, and a faulty perception about what popularity is. Cannon displays both vulnerability and vulgarity as the new "playa" on da block. Christina Milian, aside from her obvious physical assets, is both self absorbed and sweet as the girl every teen boy wants to have. This time we see both sides of the coin and not just the empty headed desire of achieving status. It is also refreshing to see the self conscious recognition of the perils of being popular too, as Milian aptly puts it: it's a full time job.The film avoids the all too common pitfalls of these type of teen comedies: annoyingly dorky sidekicks, parents out of tune with the times, and an overabundance of gender stereotyping, physical groping and sexual innuendo. However, it seems like the film contains a large number of close-ups of Christina Milian's navel and torso, but that doesn't detract from this enjoyable teen comedy. Steve Harvey has a few scenes as Cannon's father dispensing misguided advice. *** of 4 stars.