The DUFF (2015)

Review: I wasn't that impressed with this film because it seemed like many other teenage high school movies that we have seen many times before. The jokes weren't that funny and the predictable storyline wasn't that great. Its about a teenage girl, Bianca (Mae Whitman) who hangs around with two beautiful girls in college and soon realises that she is being ignored by everyone in her school. She then gets told by her friend, Wesley (Robbie Amell) that she is the DUFF in her group, which stands for the Designated Ugly Fat Friend, so she asks him for tips to become noticed and datable. He agrees to change her looks and persona on the bases that she helps him with his grades, which he is going to fail because he concentrates on beautiful girls and sports. She then ditches her friends and goes to the store with Wesley to buy a whole new wardrobe but while she is in the store posing in front of the mirror, one of her college enemies is filming her making a fool out of herself. When she goes back to college she sees that the footage of her in the store has gone viral so she becomes the joke of the school, which doesn't go down well with the principle who decides to take away everyone's mobiles because of the cyber bullying. Anyway, she soon gets back with her old best friends and they convince her to go for the boy that she really loves. There's nothing that original in the storyline but it made a hell of a lot of profit at the box office so the concept must have struck a cord in many people hearts. Everyone either knows of a DUFF or was a DUFF so on that bases, the movie did work but I honestly didn't find it that interesting or funny. The characters were very shallow and everyone seemed to be into things like Facebook, Instagram etc, which I don't find that interesting at all . The love element of the plot was predictable right from the beginning of the film and it became corny after a while. Anyway, I was quite disappointed with the movie and I'm personally getting fed up with movies in this genre. Disappointing!

Round-Up: Mae Williams, 27, has starred in over a 120 movies, which are mostly made for TV but I doubt that anyone recognises her. I remember her in Scott Pilgrim as the nutty Roxy Richter but thats about it. Her career started in the 1994 hit When A Man Loves A Woman with Meg Ryan and Andy Garcia and then she got many roles in various TV series like Friends, Chicago Hope and JAG. She also starred in Independence Day, One Fine Day with George Clooney, the Gingerbread Men and Hope Floats in the 90's and then she turned back to TV for a while. She didn't star in another major movie until Scott Pilgrim in 2010 and then she came back on the big screen in 2012 in the Perks of Being a Wallflower and the Factory with John Cusack. She also had a role in a Million Ways to Die in the West but I don't remember seeing her in that film either. Its the first major release for director Ari Sandel so I don't have anything to compare this movie to. Although I didn't enjoy the movie that much, there is a emotional undertone about bullies in school and how they can affect individuals in the future.   Budget: $8.5million Worldwide Gross: $43.5million

I recommend this movie to people who are into their comedies about a teenage girl who wants to become noticed after hanging around with two popular girls in her college. 3/10