Shy and insecure nerd Mike (a fine and likable portrayal by Joseph R. Straface) makes a $2,000 dollar bet with smarmy jerk big man on campus Randy (a pleasingly obnoxious turn by Lee Barringer) that he can deflower Diane (a wonderfully sweet and beguiling performance by the adorable Stacy Christensen), who's the most popular girl in high school. However, things get complicated when Mike falls in love with Diane. Writer/director Francesco Lucente takes a premise that could have been easily done as your basic crassly pandering raunchy smut and instead treats it with surprising taste, warmth, heart, and even genuine charm: There's a touching and good-natured affinity and sensitivity for the appealing main characters that's impossible to dislike or resist, Mike's fantasies are both funny and witty (the James Bond send-up are especially amusing), and the upbeat conclusion doesn't comes across as remotely forced or too sappy. Straface and Christensen both do terrific work in the lead roles; they receive fine support from J.T. Wotton as Mike's loyal, long-suffering friend Charles, Anna Lisa Iapaolo as Diane's sarcastic best gal pal Judy, and Bev Wotton as Diane's strict, overprotective mother. Joseph Bitonti's bright cinematography gives this movie an attractive sunny look. The bouncy rock soundtrack keeps things bubbling along. A real sleeper.

I found this movie to be particularly interesting for me as I am perhaps the biggest James Bond fan ever. The 20-minute Bond dream sequence is totally 80's which is another thing I like and I was cracking up at the music playing during the dream sequences. Despite this part of the film, I quite enjoyed the rest of it as well. The whole movie just gave me a warm feeling as I was watching it. I thought the ending was pretty fitting as well. I would really like to get a copy of this movie but, of course, it is a very difficult movie to find. I once taped the latter half of it (including the James Bond sequence thankfully) off T.V. but I've since lost the tape. Jeez... I remember frantically looking around for a blank tape so I could start taping it right away and I found one just in time for that sequence. This is definitely a fun movie and it's strange that I'm now living in B.C. (the province in Canada right next door to Alberta where this was filmed in 1987). I'd have to say that most people would enjoy this film when you're in the right mood with an open mind. I think the movie turned out to be exactly what the writer/filmmakers intended it to be; just a fun teen movie that delivers a nice message effectively and shows the importance of forgiveness and compromise and in a very cute, innocent way.

In most respects, this film is a clunker, hence the bad reviews; however, it is only fair to note that what the film is, and what it obviously intended to be, are two entirely different things.I don't know anything about the film's history, but it comes across like a no-budget college student film. Penned and directed by Francesco Lucente, the story is about a wager between two high school students, Mike and Randy. Mike, frustrated by the fact that he's constantly one-upped by the hubristic Randy, bets his nemesis $2,000 that he can bed Diane, the title character, who obviously has a reputation at stake. And the `courtship' is on. However, as Mike undertakes the challenge, he finds himself falling for his intended conquest.Similar plot lines have been used to better effect in recent efforts, namely She's All That starring Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook, and American Pie, featuring the relationship between Chris Klein (Oz) and Mena Suvari (Heather), both released in 1999. Unfortunately, Lucente didn't have an astronomical budget to work with - heck, none of the scenes even feature St. Francis High. But, low budget efforts have worked before, so that can't be targeted as the primary reason this film doesn't work.The film mainly falls flat for two reasons: 1) a weak script, and 2) a wooden performance by Joseph Straface in the leading male role. Straface just doesn't possess the acting chops to convince the audience that Mike has what it takes to win over Diane, and therefore it isn't very believable when he does succeed in his mission. Even so, Stacy Christensen delivers a respectable performance as Diane, the title character, and Anna-Lisa Iapaolo (now a New York-based jazz singer) as her best friend Judy, Lee Barringer as Randy, and J. T. Wotton as Charles (Mike's best friend and Judy's younger brother), do adequately in their supporting roles. Wotton, in fact, comes across as a natural in front of the camera, managing to salvage many of his scenes with Straface, whose character has most of the screen time. The ending of the film was downright ridiculous, consisting of a `chickie run' between Mike and Randy. I was left with the impression that Lucente chose to work the scene in out of homage to Rebel Without A Cause, a true teen classic, completely neglecting the fact that it was an absolutely pointless maneuver on his part. It just doesn't seem to really fit into the film. It was as though he had run out of ideas and was fishing for a dramatic ending.Although the film does have some heart, it lacks much else to recommend it, save for some half-way decent tunes on the soundtrack. Sadly, I must concur with the overall consensus that there really isn't much going to recommend this film to others, unless you want to be left, like I was, with a feeling of what could have been but never will be.

It is after all a comedy and I couldn't help but laugh at this movie. There is a person dressed in a bear suit that scares some kids into believing it's a real bear. Think that Mike somehow got his brother to dress in a fake bear outfit? Naw, this movie would say, "this is real freakin bear and it's after Mike and the virgin."