Here on Earth is a terrible and failed teen romance film. The film opens with Kelley Morse (Klein), who is a cocky prep student, getting a brand new Mercedes for a high school graduation gift. While taking his new toy out for a drive, he stops in a small town diner, which is when his life begins to change. After flirting with Samantha (Sobieski), her boyfriend Jasper (Hartnett) and Kelley engage in a dangerous car race that turns out a disaster by leaving the local diner in flames. Kelley and Jasper are sentenced to an ironic but fitting punishment: They must help rebuild the diner. When Kelley next encounters Samantha, their attraction for one another is immediate and strong. Eventually Kelley and Samantha fall in love and leads to anger and hate from Jasper. The love and hate in the three characters places them into a summer that will change their lives forever.

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Here on Earth is an awful film that becomes very annoying to watch. Nothing in this film seems to click at all.

Here on Earth was written by Michael Setzman. The script is dead before the predictable secret of the film is exposed to the audience. Everything in the script is dry, from the development, to the plot, to the characters and to climax. Also, there is not anything established in the plot. This film is supposed to be a feel good and sometimes sad romantic film. However, I could not connect or feel at all for the characters in this film. It was as if the characters were ghosts, because their development was very empty.

The acting in the film isn't much better. I really liked Chris Klein's previous performances in Election and American Pie. However, in this film, his is very stiff and stale. Part of this can be blamed on the script, since the story didn't give the young actor much to work with. I noticed in Klein's performance, that he was the only actor in the film that couldn't cry. His character was the person that goes through the most tragedy in the film, but Klein would not cry. He would get a little teary eyed, but that was it. If this actor wants to be considered as a romantic lead, he needs to find more feelings and emotions in his acting. I like Leelee Sobieski, I believe that she will be a huge star, but she is going to have to do better work than this film, enough said. Josh Hartnett is also a decent young actor, but he lacked structure and didn’t deliver much of anything either. Also, Bruce Greenwood and Stuart Wilson deliver sour performances as Samantha and Kelley's fathers.

Here on Earth is a really dreadful movie. Please save your money and time by not going to see this film. Watch for this film to drop out of the box office quickly, after a few teenagers see it the first weekend the film opens.

Report Card Grade: F

Joseph C (Beastman) Tucker

Copyright, 2000 Joseph C. Tucker, reprinted with kind permission.