Sydney White and Her Seven Dorks, DVD Review

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Sydney White and Her Seven Dorks? I have to admit that when the disc landed on my desk my first thought was ‘oh dear, never heard of it’, then I noticed that it starred Amanda Bynes and thought ‘maybe it won’t be so bad then’.

Sydney (Amanda Bynes) is about to go college, the same college that her deceased mother went to. Her mother was a member of the Kappa Phi Nu sorority and so Sydney gets to automatically pledge as she’s a legacy. Feeling that she’s following in her mother’s footsteps, becoming a Kappa Phi Nu sister is important to her. Problem is that Sydney was raised by a construction worker father and all his friends and is therefore a bit of a tomboy and the Kappa Phi Nu girls are all girly and prissy.

After arriving on campus and on the way to her first pledge party Sydney meets Tyler Prince, who is instantly attracted to her. His advances are noticed by his ex-girlfriend Rachel Witchburn, president of Kappa Phi Nu and she takes an instant dislike to Sydney. Even though Sydney fulfills all the requirements of pledge week, Rachel finds a way to deny her sisterhood and publically humiliate her. Desperately upset and without a place to live Sydney finds herself at the ‘Vortex’, a derelict old building housing the seven misfits of the university (called the vortex because it sucks in losers). The seven ‘dorks’ offer Sydney refuge and Sydney sets about righting a few wrongs by going after Rachel in the student body president elections.

Now this may all sound very familiar and indeed it is, the plot is highly predictable and clichéd, but elements of the Snow White fairytale are cleverly interwoven with a classical American teen college movie to give us a warm and fuzzy feel good story. Yes you’ve seen it all before and you know where it’s going but it’s still nice getting there. Most of the reason for this is down to the characterization. Amanda Bynes can play the ‘cute tomboy’ character in her sleep and the seven dorks are given enough screen time for you to get a feel for them. Sara Paxton is sufficiently bitchy as Rachel and Matt Long does a good job as Tyler Prince, the cool guy with a heart.

This is a bare bones release with no extras, but then that is reflected in the RRP of £10.99. The picture is clean and crisp and colors are bright and vibrant. There’s a dolby digital 5.1 surround track that is adequate but nothing to write home about.

For the girls that like teen American rom coms for their warm and fuzzy feel good fun then this one worth checking out. It won’t have you in stitches rolling on the floor, but it does have it’s moments. For the guys, if you’re a fan of Amanda Bynes then it’s worth checking out, other than that, with valentines day coming up, this is one to get for your other half. It’ll get you enough credit so you can watch the football for the next month!

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