MovieChat Forums > Geek Charming (2011) Discussion > Sigh

Sigh

posted 13 years ago by MyWifeMorganFairchild
3 replies | jump to latest

Yet ANOTHER Disney Channel story about two high school students from different social groups over coming the odds and falling in love. GROAN! While, let's face it, this is Disney's niche and stories like these will always be present from the company, what really irritates me is the casting of the "geek". Let's face it, it's been happening for the longest time in Hollywood but you'd figure in 2011 they'd at least try to be a bit more accurate to real life since this is what they're aiming for! The "geek" is way too pretty to be an actual geek. Yet again, this is a portrayal of "Hollywood geek/ugly" where the person cast in the role is good looking in real life but throwing a pair of thick black rimmed glasses on them, having their bangs cover their eyes and having them press their nose into a book or giving them a hobby like "wanting to be a director and filming everything" is supposed to make them a geek. It's an insult to actual geeks like me! I'm not saying there aren't cute geeks out there, because they are but they sure as hell don't look like models! Not to mention, our clothing is usually just a shirt and jeans, comfort over fashion. The main geek in this movie looks like he stepped right out of an Abercrombie & Fitch ad! If anything, he falls more under the label of hipster than geek! It's like that god-awful Beastly movie where we're supposed to believe that Vanessa Hudgens is a geek because she wears glasses and reads while the jock turned into a "beast" is pale, head-shaved and is covered in tattoos and looks more like your average goth/punk but is supposed to be "ugly" or at least unappealing by Hollywood's standards.

I realize my little rant is one that has been stated over and over again and I know it's going to fall on deaf ears, especially where tweens which the movie is targeted to is concerned, but come on! Like I said, it's 2011! Why is Hollywood and Disney still projecting these false stereotypes to the public? I'd like to see at least ONE Disney high school movie where the geek/nerd actually looks like Napoleon Dynamite and there's no pointless makeover in the movie which just reveals what the actor already looks like so there's no real change!

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The internet is my only escape to reality in Arcata.

[–] PaulMR 13 years ago

I thought the same thing when I saw the promos for this. You know it's a Disney romcom, when the male geek is prettier than the cool, and popular female.

[–] bboops23 13 years ago

As an actual film geek that hangs out with film geeks, most of us dress for comfort not style. Though we do where converse shoes and a ton of plaid. We are also afraid of sunlight.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4385660/ -> This girl is going places

[–] ferrisb1-1 13 years ago

It's no so much that the portrayal(s) are off, but that they don't do anything ORIGINAL with them. Instead, they are as the OP described: cliche and stereotypical.

Like I said in another thread, I know the Rom Com is a specific genre and has certain conventions, but it's the execution that makes the good ones stand out from the rest.

"Geek Charming" really does seem (so far) like "been there, done that", but in a bland and boring way and not like something that is familiar, but also original, too.