Let’s be honest: Pygmalion stories haven’t aged well, have they? Who really has the stomach for a tale in which a toxic dude tries to mold some woman who’s just trying to live her life into his version of the feminine ideal? Netflix’s solution? Swap the genders and have TikTok-er Addison Rae makeover a guy!
That’s the premise of He’s All That, a remake of the 1999 hit teen rom-com She’s All That, which itself was an update of George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play. But if the trailer for the new flick is any indication, not a lot has changed since the late ’90s. Sure our heroine is a teen influencer instead of just your run-of-the-mill high school queen bee, but it turns out that most geeks are still idiotically hot under their glasses!
He’s All That follows roughly the same plot as its ’90s counterpart: Rae plays Padgett Sawyer a social media star who catches her boyfriend, a Bieber-esque dirtbag (Jordan Van Draanen), cheating on her with one of his backup dancers. She then makes a bet with her friends that she can re-invent photography loving, horseback-riding “loser” Cameron Kweller (Tanner Buchanan) into prom king material. This basically involves giving him a haircut. Because haircuts are for male dweebs what contacts are for brainy girls.
Meanwhile, Kourtney Kardashian gets a cameo alongside She’s All That stars Rachael Leigh Cook and Matthew Lillard. Which will probably mean exactly nothing to the film’s target demo. He’s All That premieres August 27.
