25 Years Later: 10 Things I Hate About You
On the 31st of March 1999, 10 Things I Hate About You was released. The teen comedy went on to become popular with the mass audience in the years to come. 25-years-later it is still considered one of the most popular movies of the era and often put on the best teen comedies list.
Today I am looking back at teen comedy and see how it still stands the test of time.
25 Years Later – 10 Things I Hate About You
Shakespeare Boom
William Shakespeare wrote countless plays that have become the backbone of the entertainment industry. In the 1990s, we saw a new boom in his writings. Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Romeo + Juliet’ reimagined the story in a modern world. Kenneth Branagh’s ‘Hamlet’ and Michal Hoffman’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Being the bigger ones. These created major success and 10 Things I Hate About You reimagined The Taming of the Shrew. 10 Things I Hate About You remains one of the few reimaginations to blend into the teen comedy era.
Box Office
10 Things I Hate About You was produced with a budget of $13 Million and went on to make $60 Million worldwide. The movie was released the same day as the sci-fi classic ‘The Matrix’. You can see the movie was held back on an even bigger scale. The movie was the 5th most successful romantic comedy of the year. Behind ‘Runaway Bride’, ‘Notting Hill’, ‘She’s All That’, and ‘Forces of Nature’.
Critical Response
10 Things I Hate About You has a score of 71% on Rotten Tomatoes, with mostly middling ratings. Not many gave the movie a full 5 star however, not many gave it a rating of 1 star. Elsewhere, on Metacritic the movie has a rating of 70, with 19 positive reviews, and only one negative review.
Robert Ebert gave the movie a 2.5/4 quoting ‘The high school romance genre has become so popular that it’s running out of new ideas and has taken to recycling classic literature’. While Marc Savlov gave it a 3/5 quoting ‘What would Shakespeare have made of all of this? I suspect he would have approved.’
The Cast
Heath Ledger
When you look back at the cast, you get to see a few big names who went on to bigger and better things, along with one tragic story. Heath Ledger has his first American role in this movie. The heartthrob quickly followed up with ‘The Patriot’, ‘A Knight’s Tale’, ‘Monster’s Ball’ and ‘The Four Feathers’. An Oscar nomination followed in Ang Lee’s ‘Brokeback Mountain’.
Heath would get cast in Christopher Nolan’s Batman sequel ‘The Dark Knight’. At the time of the announcement, faced a lot of backlash. However, Heath proved them wrong with his performance which led to him winning an Oscar. Tragically, it ended up being his last major role before his sudden death.
Julia Stiles
Opposite Heath Ledger was Julia Stiles. Julia quickly completed a Shakespeare trilogy with ‘Hamlet’ and ‘O’. Elsewhere, she was cast in the leading roles in romantic comedies of the time ‘Down to You’ and ‘Save the Last Dance’. Away from the romantic comedy genre, Julia joined the action thriller ‘Bourne’ franchise.
Her big screen career has seen her work with some of the biggest names in the industry. Appearances in Award favourites including ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ and ‘Hustlers’ gave her a chance to step into television more. ‘Dexter’, ‘Blue’, ‘Riviera’ and ‘The Lake’ kept her busy from 2010-2023. Outside of television, she stepped into horror, with the poorly received ‘Omen’ remake. However, her last movie William Brent Bell’s ‘Orphan First Kill’ surprised audiences, as nobody believed the movie could have a sequel or prequel working.
Supporting Cast
In the supporting cast, we get Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who at the time of this movie was appearing in ‘3rd Rock from the Sun’. He has gone on to have an extremely busy career, breaking away from the child-star grouping to become a big star in his own right. Joseph teamed up with a young director Rian Johnson for ‘Brick’. The pair have worked together ever since, even if Joseph takes a lot of cameos in his movies. Elsewhere, he appeared in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ and ‘Inception’ giving him two billion-dollar Box Office movies. He also does a lot of work helping the next generation of creators with his HitRECord company.
Larisa Oleynik plays the love interest of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character, which would later come around again in ‘3rd Rock from the Sun’. This remains the most successful movie role of her career. Serial comedian David Krumholtz has gone on to have an incredibly busy career, most recently seen in Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer. Andrew Keegan and Susan May Pratt both struggled to make as big of an impact as other members of the cast. Mostly sticking to TV appearances or low-budget movies. However, Gabrielle Union went on to have a successful career both on the big screen and television.
The Remakes & Sequels
In 2009 a television series was created telling the same story. It saw Larry Miller as the single father of Kat and Bianca. However, it only lasted one season. Meanwhile, in 2014, Gil Junger returned with ’10 Things I Hate About Life’.
In Conclusion
After 25 years it has become clear that 10 Things I Hate About You has become a favourite in the teen comedy genre. It has a wonderful cast, who bring the characters to life. We get laughs and a brave different twist on the Shakespeare play.
What are your thoughts on 10 Things I Hate About You?