Posted: 09/24/2007

Sydney White

(2007)

by Hank Yuloff

Hey! YOU!

Yeah, you… The one reading this. I took one for you, ya know. I saw Syney White so YOU do not have to. Let me make this short and sweet: If you like romantic movies, rent the original Snow White animated Disney flick. If you like “College Fraternity Comedies” rent Revenge of the Nerds. Since the last 10 minutes of this film are directly ripped off from that film, you might as well see the original. And the nudity. And Long Duc Dong (that still makes me laugh). In fact, if you like college fraternity comedies, watch GREEK on ABC Family It is smarter and funnier that this rehash of geeks and misfits make good.

Snow… I mean… SIDNEY White (Amanda Bynes from Hairspray and She’s the Man) has just arrived at Southern Atlantic University and pledge’s her mother’s sorority. AH… Using the old “She is a Legacy, we have to take her” plot twist. Worked on Animal House, too. But she quickly runs afoul of the sorority president (substitute for Wicked Witch, complete with the “Who’s the fairest of them all” reference for those who really do not get the retelling of this fairy tale) and is banished to a condemned house (dungeon in the castle) on Greek Row. It is there she finds her place among a group of seven (get the number reference?) misfit men who become her heroes. They even attempt to take over Student Government (wait, isn’t that JUST like Revenge of the Nerds?). For those who are so dense that they still do not get the reference, the love interest for Snow (I mean SYDNEY) is named Tyler PRINCE. And he is completely CHARMING. Gag.

I began thinking of George Carlin’s routine about the seven dwarves and how they were just like society’s underworld: Doc was the connection. Sneezy used too much blow. Sleepy was heavily into downers etc. Made me laugh more than this one did.

Bynes is sold by the studio as a 21 master of the pratfall reminiscent of Lucille Ball. Well, like Sydney White is to Revenge and many other movies, she has a long way to go to fit those magic slippers. Or whatever other fairy tale we are supposed to think of when we watch this crap.

Hank Yuloff is a writer in Los Angeles.

Got a problem? E-mail us at filmmonthly@gmail.com