My friend CK asked me to go along for this movie, as he's a huge Amanda Bynes fan, having followed her television series What I Like About You, and both of us agreed upon her comic potential in She's The Man, which was a pretty fun gender bender movie.
With a title like that, there's nothing too cerebral about Lovewrecked. No, it's not a doomed spoof of the Love Boat, but the teenage romance here is quite as cheesy and predictable. Bynes stars as Jenny Riley, and we're quickly introduced to her character's idol worshipping of screen pop singing sensation Jason Masters (Chris Carmack), going totally bonkers during his concert, much to the detriment of best buddy Ryan (Jonathan Bennett).
During their summer job at a Caribbean resort, she finds herself caught in a man-overboard situation with Jason, and the two of them thus began a Robinson Crusoe life - until of course Jenny discovers that they aren't really shipwrecked on some remote island at all, and keeps this as a secret from Jason. When her love rival participates in her little charade, it becomes like the reality TV series Survivor, where each have to outplay, outwit and outlast the other in order to get the affections of the lone pop star.
Directed by Randal Kleiser of Grease and The Blue Lagoon fame, this movie too had Bynes strut around mostly in bikinis, the apparel of choice for any girl working at a resort / stuck in a desert island. Bynes still haven't lost her comic timing, however here she's let down by an extremely weak story, and an even more disappointing lack of laughs from the stilted comedy. There are comedic situations which either make you laugh, or make you laugh from how bad it is. Sadly Lovewrecked had more of the latter, and for one scene, had to rely on the toilet humour favourite of the fart sequence.
As for the other characters, they're basically all one dimensional. The catty love rival, the handsome scheming nice-on-outside-unethical-on-inside pop star, the pining buddy, the mean resort manager, the horny colleague, the arrogant star assistants and minders, the list goes on. The Riley parents were such throwaway characters that you wonder if their inclusion was for the sake of extending the run time, which clocks in at a short 86 minutes.
So unless you're a true blue Bynes fan, or have that penchant for teenage romance movies, do steer clear or you'll find yourself getting pretty bored at predictability.
