BOYS AND GIRLS

by Alicia Potter

Director Robert Iscove taps his She's All That star Freddie Prinze Jr. to reprise his cute-guy-who-doesn't-know-it shtick in this gagger of a romantic comedy. That means Prinze spends an excessive amount of time with his hair parted in the middle as Ryan, an anal-retentive nice guy who's plagued by a free-spirited beauty (Claire Forlani) whom he's loathed since age 12. Naturally, the polar opposites end up attending Berkeley, where they fumble into friendship and study away the years unaware that they're the most genetically blessed pair on campus. Can they really stay just pals, though?

That's the big -- and tedious -- question behind this When Harry Met Sally redux. Gabby and self-conscious, it deep-sixes a smattering of astute insights under enough footage of San Francisco to induce a Rice-a-Roni craving. American Pie's Jason Biggs and Drop Dead Gorgeous's Amanda Detmer trawl for laughs as the couple's roommates but succeed only in ratcheting up the cliché count. And, yes, that's The Blair Witch Project's Heather Donahue, sans sticks, as Ryan's aggressive, Shelley Long-like date. This makes two scary movies in a row for her. At Cinema World, Framingham, the Hoyt Westborough, Leominster, the Solomon Pond Hoyt, and the Worcester North Showcase.