Stream it now Can't Buy Me Love 1987

 

one of my absolute favorite 80s movies. such a cute feel good movie and a sweet romance. To me this is hands down patrick dempsey's best movie!

I should try this sometime. ha but the battle royale would be sooo much better

Dude... I cry during this movie everytime I see it. Just bought it on DVD and I love it. It is fun to look back and see all the big hair on the girls which is a total 80's thing. But no matter how dated the movie looks, the story is still the same. Geek loves the popular figures out a way to become popular and fails miserably, but ultimately gets the girl in the end and lives happily ever after. This is a total chic flick... A+ in my book.

This movie is a lot better than I remembered it.

Can't Buy Me Love is one of the better known High School movies, about a kid (Patrick Dempsey) who pays the most popular girl in school (Amanda Peterson) to pretend to be his girlfriend for one month to break into the "cool" clique. Of course, it works, but of course, he gets more than he bargained for when becoming cool actually turns him into a jerk and shows Cindy (Peterson) how shallow being cool actually is. Nonetheless, this is a kid's movie, everybody learns a lesson and they live happily ever after... I think.

That's honestly one of the places I went when I saw this movie again after so many years. Truth be known, I didn't like Can't Buy Me Love when I was a kid, for a couple of reasons. First of all, it was not a John Hughes High School movie - yes, super film geek knew even then who directed what and what that meant (two second Aslum Khan history lesson: my knowledge of "direction" came from my father telling me that Splash (Ron Howard, 1984) was directed by Richie from "Happy Days." I had no idea what that meant, but I started watching Siskel and Ebert soon after that, and by the time I was sixteen or so I already knew what a director did and that I didn't want to do it), and because Hughes didn't direct it, I perceived it as a lesser film. More than that, though, I was embarrassed by it. I knew I was Ronald (Dempsey), and I knew that deep down, I wished this had happened to me. I felt like everybody else knew that too, and that just reiterated how big a loser I was. And I didn't like some of the comedy. I'm sorry, but to this day, flatulence humor is not funny to me. I'm the only person who thinks that famous scene from Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, 1974) is actually pretty gross. (I'm also one of the few people who doesn't think that movie is very good as a whole. If Richard Pryor had been in it, IMO, it would have been a masterpiece. But Cleavon Little just isn't very talented, IMO). Which is why I'm knocking off a point even now.

But what struck me about Can't Buy Me Love this time around is how authentic it is. When I was younger, the one thing I did like was the film's acknowledgement that if you live in the same place long enough, everybody knows each other - the cool kids went to elementary school with the nerds, who went to elementary with the hot girls - and somehow, they all outgrow that. The thing is, that element is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of realism. The film actually attempts to explain why the popular girl is the way she is, in giving us some insight into Cindy's mother. When Ronald starts hanging out with the cool kids, they initially still think he's a dork, like they would in real life. They notice his behavior and his car, and they're first put off by his stupid dance (a brilliant contrivance that I haven't seen in any movie before or since, and that's equally authentic. I know from experience that even when the nerd /tries/ to act cool, he'll invariably fuck it up. My Temple of Geek Science blog is all about that, how being a nerd goes back to basic personality traits, not just circumstance). The way Ronald actually cries and behaves once he's exposed is how a real kid would act in this situation. And the last scene, where he wears a cowboy hat just so they can shoot a "riding off into the sunset" ending is equally inspired.

But as always, my reviews are as much about me as they are about the films in question, and seeing this movie was actually pretty timely for me. I'm at a crossroads in my life, a point at which I'm finally getting where I wanted to "end up" as an adult, and my mood is good, so I'm reflecting a lot about life and the whole "growing up" process. Ronald says in this movie that he was born in 1969. He also says that when he is his father's age, people will be living and working on the moon. Well, hasn't happened yet, but that's besides the point. The point is that this kid is pushing forty now, and I wonder what became of him. I wonder what will become of all of us who grew up in John Hughes America. I know what my peers are doing - some have found their "calling," but many are still finding their way.

The characters in Can't Buy Me Love learn a lot. Those of us who grew up watching those films did too. I'm just a little fuzzy on what we learned.

So correct me if I'm wrong--I don't watch the show--but Patrick Dempsey currently plays a character nicknamed "Dr. McDreamy" on Grey's Anatomy, right?

Yeah. So twenty years ago, he played a dweeb whose shot at popularity came from having $1000 at the right time. (Whose younger brother was Seth Green!) Proving, I suppose, that what you look like in high school really doesn't matter in the long run. (Not, I would like to point out, that he looks so bad in this movie. But Gods, look at the difference it's made in your average Cusack!)

I think this movie was written by someone who doesn't remember being young as well as they thought they did. As is pointed out in a later movie where Seth Green plays a minor role, sometimes, being young is less fun than being dead. Here, all you have to do is be in the right place at the right time with the right thing to say, and everything works out just fine.

Cindy doesn't believe Ronnie when he says that dating her for just one month will make him popular. In the universe they inhabit, he's right. In the universe I inhabited in high school, she would have been.

Let's take a look at a few basic premises on which the movie's based.

First, all these people were friends in elementary school; there were no cliques. Either my elementary school was abnormal or this is wrong. There's still popular kids and nerds, even in first grade. It's true that some of us would hang out together outside of school, but only if we happened to live within a block of one another and at least six blocks from other kids.

Second, all it took for him to be the coolest guy in school was to date the head cheerleader. Wrong; it would have been much more likely that she would have become an outcast than that he would have become suddenly, wildly popular. I'm sorry, kids, but it's true. An aberration of taste may be forgiven, but it may not. Either way, the aberrant boyfriend will be ignored again as soon as the couple break up.

Third, once his "cool" status was blown in such a major, public way, he couldn't've gotten it back. Certainly not the way he did. (I'm sorry if you feel I'm giving away the ending, but it is a teen movie. Of course he becomes popular again!) You don't get jocks leading a round of applause because you've stood up to a bully. Either you get beat up by all the jocks or you get ignored.

It's a cute movie, and it certainly takes place in the high school we wouldn't've minded, the one where everything works out by the end credits. But it's not the high school I attended, and I doubt it's the one any of you attended, either.

Starring: Patrick Dempsey, Amanda Peterson, Courtney Gains, Tina Caspary, and Seth Green.
Directed by Steve Rash.
Written by Michael Swerdlick.
Rated PG-13 (for some sexual content and language).
Running time approximately 1 hour 34 minutes.


You most certainly can't...

Steve Rash's Can't Buy Me Love is a criminally underrated 80s teen flick with cute performances and a very cute (in fact, downright sexy) Patrick Dempsey. I don't understand why so many critics hated this film (Ebert awarded it a half star - ACK!). I adore it. It's funny, charming and inspired a great pasttime for my friends and I at 80s night on Mondays. I like it, so see it. *** (out of ****) B

5.5/10. So 1980's! It means well, but just doesn't quite have what it takes. I was not thrilled with the performances, I felt that hurt the film the most. Reasonably good score. Just a bit too much, not convincing.

It's good, but not a favorite-it has it's moments.
But the whole "Geek buys popular girl" thing didnt really appeal to me

wow this movie had me rocking when i 1st saw it.. ronald miller spends 1000 bucks to get all the hot girls in school i say it was worth it.. what a dork buying a telescope anyway, coochie is better and he gots lots of it for 1000.. her ex boyfriend bobby thinks hes god gift but ronald outduels him for cindy mancini. this movie had me wanting to get my groove on.. i was juiced, jumping up and down...see this movie you'll want it all afterwards.. peace out homies, plus it brought back childhood memories..

Can't Buy Me Love