AGW Entertainment reporter Lynn B. saw a romantic comedy film

Love Don't Cost a Thing

Warner Brothers Pictures

Life imitates art for Love Don't Cost a Thing star Christina Milian. The plot point that gets the ball rolling in the film is Christina's character wrecking her mom's car. Recently, Christina's young teen sister took her boyfriend on a joyride in her big sis's car and boyfriend crashed it! Christina is prowling for a new ride.

In this romantic teen comedy, an update of the 1987 film Can't Buy Me Love, high school senior Alvin Johnson (Nick Cannon) is a super smart engineering whiz social outcast who wishes his dreams for designing car engines didn't interfere with his becoming "cool" and getting dates. When the queen of the popular crowd Paris Morgan (Christina Milian) wrecks her mom's car, Alvin, who has had his nerd-boy eye on her, sells out his future to help her. In exchange for $1,500 worth of car parts and automotive expertise, Alvin asks Paris to pretend to be his girlfriend for two weeks. She agrees.

Alvin's plan works great. After getting a cool Sean John make-over from Paris, he is suddenly the hottest guy at school. It all goes to his head at the expense of losing his longtime, true friends but Paris is starting to like him for real. Will Alvin wise up, go after that engineering scholarship and drop his new snob act long enough to actually get the girl?

This is a cute film with some funny and warm moments and a lot of teens can certainly relate to the Alvin character. There are some good lessons learned here and they aren't laid on in a preachy style. Christina and Nick are both super attractive but the plot here is very predictable even if you didn't see the earlier film. The direction is slow and there are a few too many off-color jokes that are okay only for 13 and up.

If you are big Nick Cannon or Christina Milian fans, however, the film shows them both in a fun and romantic light. It's a harmless date flick that has its moments.

Rated: PG-13

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