Pumpkin (2002)

Greek and Geek
This movie captures attitudes of greek life at USC where it is filmed, yet leads to a compassionate and passionate twist for one very perfectly popular sorority girl which expands her narrow sheltered mind to someone whom she would normally avoid. Its sweet and a bit twisted. Be sure and watch the sorority girls best kept secret- the fabulous DG hair flip which they secretly practice in the mirror. (its too funny)

ROTN 5: Change of Heart
It wasn't believable that Christina Ricci, of all people, would pass muster as a sorority queen, though she goes all out raiding Reese Witherspoon's wardrobe and even borrows Reese Witherspoon's actual hair in her senseless quest for authenticity, but believability isn't what PUMPKIN is all about.

Basically this is the same movie as REVENGE OF THE NERDS only told from the sorority girl's POV, the beautiful girl who changes her mind and decides that nerds are cool. It was a unique comedy concept then, but why drag it out now once again? They should have just called this REVENGE OF THE NERDS 5: CHANGE OF HEART and strapped Anthony Edwards or Robert Carradine into that wheelchair, had them acting autistic. Christina Ricci's boyfriend Kent here is obviously based on Ted McGinley's "Stan Gable" ("Those nerds are a threat to our way of life!" In fact everything's the same in PUMPKIN except backwards, for no one ever had thought of telling the Nerds story from Betty Childs' perspective before, and it does open up some interesting narrative avenues, trouble is, it just isn't as funny as you'd like from a Tri-Lam followup. Even the execrable NERDS 4: NERDS IN LOVE (1994) had more laughs than PUMPKIN.

But on the other hand, those older movies didn't have Britain's most valiantly slumming actress, Brenda Blethyn, here seen as Pumpkin's protective mother acting her heart out, as if her agents had told her this was SECRETS AND LIES PART TWO. Please Brenda, wake up, come back to reality! And stop acting, acting, acting, it's undignified. I haven't seen slumming like this since Imelda Staunton played the nasty LA school principal in Hilary Swank's FREEDOM WRITERS.

ROTN 5: Change of Heart
It wasn't believable that Christina Ricci, of all people, would pass muster as a sorority queen, though she goes all out raiding Reese Witherspoon's wardrobe and even borrows Reese Witherspoon's actual hair in her senseless quest for authenticity, but believability isn't what PUMPKIN is all about.

Basically this is the same movie as REVENGE OF THE NERDS only told from the sorority girl's POV, the beautiful girl who changes her mind and decides that nerds are cool. It was a unique comedy concept then, but why drag it out now once again? They should have just called this REVENGE OF THE NERDS 5: CHANGE OF HEART and strapped Anthony Edwards or Robert Carradine into that wheelchair, had them acting autistic. Christina Ricci's boyfriend Kent here is obviously based on Ted McGinley's "Stan Gable" ("Those nerds are a threat to our way of life!" In fact everything's the same in PUMPKIN except backwards, for no one ever had thought of telling the Nerds story from Betty Childs' perspective before, and it does open up some interesting narrative avenues, trouble is, it just isn't as funny as you'd like from a Tri-Lam followup. Even the execrable NERDS 4: NERDS IN LOVE (1994) had more laughs than PUMPKIN.

But on the other hand, those older movies didn't have Britain's most valiantly slumming actress, Brenda Blethyn, here seen as Pumpkin's protective mother acting her heart out, as if her agents had told her this was SECRETS AND LIES PART TWO. Please Brenda, wake up, come back to reality! And stop acting, acting, acting, it's undignified. I haven't seen slumming like this since Imelda Staunton played the nasty LA school principal in Hilary Swank's FREEDOM WRITERS.