From Justin to Kelly
From Justin to Kelly is a
2003 film starring
Kelly Clarkson and
Justin Guarini, the winner and runner-up of the first series of
American Idol, respectively.
The movie is set during
spring break in
Miami, Florida.
Texan singing waitress Kelly Taylor (played by Clarkson) meets
Pennsylvania college student Justin Bell (played by Guarini), they fall for each other, and then spend the rest of the movie trying to get together.
There are also other subplots in the film where Kelly's friend, Kaya, falls in love with charming bus boy, Carlos; Kelly's other friend, Alexa (played by Katherine Bailess), schemes to keep Justin and Kelly from meeting; Justin's friend, Brandon (played by Greg Siff), is always getting on the wrong side of a sexy beach patrolwoman; and Justin's other friend, Eddie (played by Brian Dietzen), tries to hook up with his cyberpal he has been corresponding with.
The critics began mercilessly deriding the movie upon news of its making, and the movie was the
box office bomb they predicted despite its association with the popular television show. In an interesting twist, theater chains threatened not to show it at all when distributor
20th Century Fox—anticipating a theatrical flop—announced plans to rush the movie to
VHS and
DVD a mere six weeks after its opening weekend. Conceding to theater owners, Fox pushed the scheduled video date back a number of months. When the movie tanked in its first weekend of theatrical release, Fox reinstated the original VHS and DVD release schedule.
Users of the
Internet Movie Database have voted the film a prominent position on the site's "Bottom 100": it is now #3 on the list [
1]. Other listing systems also rate it
among the worst movies ever made.
Craig Kilborn gave it a short and devastating review one day after its release, with the words: "Here's the movie: From Justin To Kelly. Here's my review: From Theater To Video".
The film's
choreography was considered so bad that a special
Golden Raspberry "Governor's Award" was created just so
From Justin to Kelly could win it.
Clarkson's already rising musical career was unaffected by the movie's failure, but Guarini's was hurt as the movie's bad buzz coincided with the release of his long delayed debut album. If there is one success story to come out of this film, it is that of
Anika Noni Rose, who played Kaya. She won a
Tony Award the next year for Best Actress in the musical
Caroline, or Change.
The movie was nominated for four
Teen Choice Awards, including Choice Summer Movie and Choice Chemistry. Kelly Clarkson was nominated for Choice Breakout Movie Star, Female and Choice Crossover Artist.
*
Films considered the worst ever*
Official movie website*
Reviews on Rotten Tomatoes*
Summary of the movie on Television Without Pity*
IMDb's Bottom 100
