What Parents Should Know
An attractive blonde female character is portrayed as the
quintessential "dumb blonde." Frequent moderate profanity, much
of it sexually themed. An obscene finger gesture, with the
character mouthing the action's meaning. Lots of teen drinking
(some resulting in vomiting), and a teacher drinks from a
flask. Some smoking. Teens organize a large party when Berke's
parents are away. Striker cheats on Allison. Striker bribes
stagehands to set off explosives during the play. Some
flatulence and jokes about defecating in the pool. Countless
sex-related jokes. Berke's parents host a relationship advice
show; they demonstrate sexual positions, discuss erotic
apparatus, and encourage their son to experiment sexually.
Female characters wear revealing clothing. A "hormonally
imbalanced" dog attempts to mount various objects. Berke enters
the basketball court wearing a jock strap (rear view nudity).
Berke and friends go to a strip club on sadomasochism night
where a dominatrix places Berke in a suspension harness. Mostly
slapstick violence--Berke drunkenly falls off a roof and is hit
by a basketball, and a rigged explosion launches Striker into
the orchestra pit. Berke and Striker fight. Felix punches Berke
for kissing his sister. An accident-prone girl causes a series
of violent mishaps (she lights someone on fire, hits a man in a
wheelchair, etc.). Kelly points a loaded crossbow at Berke,
accidentally fires, and wounds him.
Common Sense Media Review
Like teen comedies
She's All That,
10 Things I Hate About You, and
Clueless, GET OVER IT focuses on teen main characters
who are obviously meant to be together, but who take their
sweet time to reach this conclusion. Tired genre elements here
include the "parents are out of town, let's invite the whole
school over" party scene (complete with hoola-hooping
bikini-clad girls and teens vomiting in punch bowls) and plenty
of gross-out humor (Berke falls face-first into a pile of horse
manure, and the flatulent horse then urinates on his face).
As in most teen movies, adults are portrayed as idiots. When Berke is arrested during a raid at a strip club, Berke's parents (played by Swoozie Kurtz and Ed Begley, Jr.), state that they're proud of him for getting on with his life after a painful breakup, and encourage him to go home and masturbate. When they later catch him hosting a party at their home, they remark "If we had known, we would've sprung for a DJ," and offer him condoms.
The other major adult character, the school's drama teacher, is equally irresponsible, but laughing at teachers is somewhat of a time-honored institution in teen movies (think about Grease and Ferris Bueller's Day Off). Martin Short is hilarious as the flamboyant, self-important school musical director. (Parents should note, however that he bullies students and drinks from a flask).
Still, a few gags elicited hearty laughs from a group of high school students. One sixteen-year-old girl's favorite character was Striker, an ex-boy band member. "The cheesy choreography ... the stylized hair ... he's got it down!" she said. She also enjoyed the fact that Berke's audition piece was the Big Red jingle, and loved the final music video-like sequence, in which Sisqo and Vitamin C perform Earth, Wind & Fire's "September."
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
