ReViEw FrOm...RoTtEn ToMaToEs...

"Some are still-born, some achieve mediocrity, and some have cliches forced upon them."

Opens March 17

In the new teen comedy "She’s the Man," Amanda Bynes plays a high school girl who passes for a guy. It’s a movie plot that has become overly familiar in the last 20 years, but this time it comes with a slight twist. The surprising curve in this film that wavers from painful-to-watch to decently entertaining can be found in the film’s source, Shakespeare’s "Twelfth Night." But of course, knowing the attention span of its intended audience, the film obviously doesn’t repeat the play word for word, with only the "Some are born great . . ." speech remaining partially intact. A trio of writers has dumbed down the Bard sufficiently enough to make this strictly a teen film for teens. Adults need not apply. But that’s understandable in a film filled with beautiful young faces, even if some of the high school "boys" look like they’re in their 30s. It probably won’t register with the target audience, but director Andy Fickman has at least retained some of the character names, such as Duke Orsino (Channing Tatum) in place of the Duke of Orsino, Malvolio cameos as a pet tarantula, and the great comic character of Sir Toby Belch has been reduced to the minor role of a roommate. TV starlet Bynes ("What I Like About You") plays Violet, who goes undercover at a preparatory school just to play soccer when her twin brother Sebastian (James Kirk) leaves town at the start of the school year without telling the parents. This means Violet has to room with a bunch of guys, turning showers, locker rooms and dorm rooms into mine fields as well as showcases for cheap laughs. But it also means passing for a guy, as she does with an artificial, irritating voice that makes her sound neutered. "She’s the Man" finds its own tension when Violet falls for her roommate, Duke. She finds him an oh-so-sensitive sort who stammers and gets all clammy around girls. That happens, even in Shakespeare.As usual in these frothy teen films, all the adults are idiots. But here at least their slots are filled by entertaining talents, such as David Cross as an ebullient school principal, Vinnie Jones as a soccer coach, and Julie Hagerty as, of course, a ditzy mother.Director Fickman shows little inspiration beyond his core material, falling back repeatedly on the ever present montage, such as the formula girl-turns-boy sequence, soccer drills, and others. But, naturally, he also accentuates the physical elements of his comedy, with many pratfalls on the soccer field, and, for laughs, eventually resorting to the old Tampax-in-the-nose sight gag. Shakespeare would have been so proud.