Drive Me Crazy

Directed by John Schultz, Drive Me Crazy follows Melissa Joan Hart’s Nicole and Adrian Grenier’s Chase as they concoct a scheme to make their respective romantic interests jealous by pretending to date. It’s a familiar yet workable premise that’s consistently employed to tedious, unwatchable effect by Schultz, as the filmmaker, working from Rob Thomas’ screenplay, delivers a sluggish and mostly incoherent endeavor that doesn’t contain much, if anything, in the way of forward momentum – with the disjointed atmosphere compounded by a continuing emphasis on tedious set-pieces and pointless digressions. There’s little doubt, as well, that Drive Me Crazy‘s roster of one-dimensional, far-from-sympathetic characters perpetuate the mostly interminable vibe, with Hart and Grenier’s egregiously slick efforts as the mindless protagonists certainly ranking high on the picture’s seemingly endless list of palpable problems and deficiencies. (It doesn’t help, either, that the movie boasts an assortment of periphery figures that seem to have emerged directly from a template for stories of this ilk.) By the time the absolutely anticlimactic final stretch rolls around, Drive Me Crazy has undoubtedly cemented its place as one of the worst teen dramas to ever emerge out of Hollywood. (It’s interesting to note, certainly, that this and She’s All That, an equally reprehensible piece of work, both came out in the same year.)

* out of ****