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Film: All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
Year: 2006
Director: Jonathan Levine
Writer: Jacob Foreman
Starring: Amber Heard, Anson Mount and Whitney Able
Review:
This film begins in a hallway of a high school. Everyone watches as a girl walks past, she is played by Amber Heard and she plays the title character Mandy Lane. She approaches a boy who is sitting on the ground. He is played by Michael Welch and he is her best friend as well as the school outcast.
Heard became hot over the summer and now has the attention of everyone. Heard and Welch go outside and some jocks invite her to a pool party. Heard agrees to come as well as Welch. Heard is constantly hit on and Welch sits by and watches it go down. Welch ends up sitting on the roof. The jock is played by Adam Powell and it is his house they are at. He joins Welch up there. They talk and share a drink. Welch tells him that he has no chance with Heard and ends up convincing him to jump from the roof to the pool to impress her. He doesn’t make it and dies.
We shift 9 months into the future and Heard no longer talks to Welch. Heard is a great track runner and it seems from the movie that she is the fastest in the school. There is a stoner who is throwing a party at a ranch in the country; the stoner is played by Aaron Himelstein.
Himelstein has invited Edwin Hodge and Luke Grimes as well as Heard’s friends Whitney Able and Melissa Price. Himselstein has asked Able to talk Heard into coming to the party. Able is a cheerleader and acts like a whore. We also see Welch try to talk to Heard, but she isn’t having it and Able tells him off.
In the locker room, Able asks Heard to come and she said will be there. She has to ask her aunt first, but she tells her that it should be fine. Price is also there and she shows off her bellybutton that she just got pierced. Able tells her that it’s dumb, because she is fat. Price is not super skinny like Able, but is nowhere near fat.
Heard gets the okay to go by her aunt. All of the boys that go want to be the first to sleep with Mandy Lane. Able and Price both want to fool around with Grimes. Grimes is a womanizer and has already had sex with quite a few. Himselstein is kind of weird and would sleep with anyone who will let him. Hodge is a gentleman, but he does seem to have an insincere feel to him.
The fun starts at the gas station before they arrive though, stealing a keg. The night is filled with drinking, games, shooting and swimming. When they arrive at the ranch, they meet the man who runs it for Himselstein’s family; he is played by Anson Mount. All of the ladies including Heard find him to be attractive. There is a moment during swimming where Heard strips down to her bra and panties to join them. A water snake comes after them, but Mount saves them by shooting it.
Upon arriving Hodge tries first with Heard. He kisses her on the cheek and holds her hand, but she won’t let him kiss her. During a game, Grimes gets made fun of and goes outside. Price follows him and ends up performing fellatio on him. After she is done, she tells him that it’s his turn. He tells her that is not going to happen.
While Price sits alone, someone comes up and attacks her. The person shoves a gun barrel in her mouth until it causes her to bleed. She is then drug across the ground.
Grimes returns to the party and everyone goes to the living room. When Able learns that Grimes fooled around with Price, she gets angry and goes upstairs. There was a joke earlier about her pubic hair and she cuts them off. She also strips down to be topless and looks at Mount from a window. He goes inside his shack. She breaks down and cries, because of it.
The power then goes off. Himelstein goes to check on Able who screamed. Hodge goes to check the generator and Grimes tries to fool around with Heard. It turns out that he was one who pulled a fuse and that’s why the power went out. Heard isn’t having it. Grimes decides to go get even more drunk. He also takes a gun and the truck.
Grimes drives out to the place they went swimming and looks for Price. He finds her sitting and tells her not to be mad. He finds that she is bleeding, but still alive. He is hit by the person in the hoodie who attacked her. Grimes goes into the water with the gun aimed at him. When he finally comes up, Grimes is shot.
Mount is irate when he hears the gunshots and threatens the people in the house that if he hears one more gunshot, he is calling Himselstein’s father. He is okay with the partying and drug use, but that is where he is drawing the line.
The person stalking them turns out to be Welch. He has loved Heard for awhile and he is jealous of where she is and what she is doing. Will they be able to stop him before it is too late? He mentions when he attacks Hodge that he will be dead by morning. What does that mean? What is he planning to do? Will he get Heard like he wants?
This film has a good concept to me. I believe there are people, especially an outcast in this film like Welch that if pushed to edge and if someone like Heard cut them off, that they could get to the point where they would kill for them. There is also a good twist near the end that I didn’t really see coming. Heard is pretty good in this one, but that is really where the good acting ends. There was a good editing technique where the film will freeze and they use a lighting technique that is meshed with it.
There is quite a bit that I had issues with this film. I think it is odd that Able and Price are not bothered that every male in this film wants Heard. If they are, they don’t seem to show it. I also find it weird that every single guy is just trying to sleep with Heard, instead of trying to date her and go that route to get into her pants. The only one who considers trying it is Hodge, but he pushes the envelope way too quickly. The death scenes are little bit weak as well. I thought the acting was not very good for the most part across the board.
I would recommend this film if you’re a fan of the 80’s slasher films. This is a modern take on it, but it does have a twist to give it a different story. Heard is beautiful and does a solid acting job. The concept like I have said is good, the story is okay and it makes for a decent product overall. Don’t expect to be blown away, but the twist does add a bit to it. If you like low budget horror films, I would say to give this one a viewing. Not the best film out there, but definitely not the worst.
My Rating: 6 out of 10