At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

To end the confusion once and for all, the film was made as THE HAIRY BIRD and, yes, the title is wordplay on the male wedding tackle (hilarious really, that cute little cartoon bird that fails at its attempts to take to flight in the title sequence is, in fact, a comically animated 'man's nether bits', and quite ballsy, huh?) but then the distributors backed off not to be offensive, and it was released in Canada as STRIKE! (bland!) and in the US as ALL I WANNA DO (passable, I suppose). There is the referral early on in the movie 'this school eats the hairy bird' which (would have) fitted in nicely with the far more clever original title.I downloaded the trailer and wasn't entirely convinced that it would be great, but I have loads of Kirsten Dunst movies in my RavenGlam collection, so what the hell, I bought it because she is in it. And I'm glad, no THANKFUL, I did. Movie only became a hit with me in the second half, mainly because Gaby Hoffman failed to impress, let me not pussyfoot around that any longer. She's mostly boring, and ensemble cast 'up your ziggie with a wah-wah brush!' she's virtually the female lead. There's too little zing in the way the character is portrayed, so there you have a Flat Critter. Okay, so RavenGlamDVDCollector will always play favorites with the prettiest actresses, but here I have a rock-solid case! Go on, admit it! Three years later Canadian actress Jessica Paré (LOST AND DELIRIOUS) would have been perfect! Dammit I know you're gonna hate me for this suggestion, but surely there were much brighter candidates for this central part?I just have to mention that Lynn Redgrave played the character of Miss McVane with a quiet rage that played off beautifully. I'm a guy, and I'm here to talk about Chicks, so if I break down, you have to know that Ms Redgrave did something tremendously right. Yes, the little folk has to stand together to have a voice!And the song at the end just takes the cake! "The Hairy Bird"! I am well rewarded for my steadfast devotion all these years towards wading through everything, including end titles. I pity YES, PITY the lot of you who walked out of the theater or switched off on your rented DVDs because you missed the cherry on top! A hilarious, passion-killing rendition of the woes of an inexperienced young girl expecting a lovely surprise, but instead having to get acquainted with a guy's pecker on the first date on the back seat of his car... (Smaller than a mailbox, but bigger than one of those cocktail thingies...) And how the tables were turned! Ouch! I was out of there like a comet, I guess I slammed the door on it... Tell me, have you heard, how she crushed that Hairy Bird... Gee, that will teach you to switch off immediately!Let me just say that Kirsten Dunst is oh-so cute, and then there's Monica Keena, the added surprise, she is lovely, ooh yeah. Enough to make hairy birds all over the world wanna dance with 'em. :)

Odette (Gaby Hoffmann) is the new girl in Miss Godard's Preparatory School For Girls. Verena von Stefan (Kirsten Dunst) is the school bad girl and she quickly befriends Odette. Abby Sawyer (Rachael Leigh Cook) is the school monitor. Verena leads a group of girls called the DAR until plans to merge the school with a boy's academy turn the group upside down.This stars some of the best young actresses of the time. It's an uphill battle for sexual equality. Some of it is poignant and some of it is funny. But mostly it meanders. There are a lot of lead characters all going in different directions. It seems like the film wants Kirsten Dunst to lead, but she's just one of many.Writer/director Sarah Kernochan tries to get the right feel with the era music. But the writing isn't funny enough or sharp enough. While it's fun to see these stars at an early stage, it never really gets great. It's much more of a girls movie where the girls are smart. It's about girl power, and not just the easy sexy-girls-doing-kung-fu-fighting type of girl power.

okay. this movie movie does make a legitimate point about funding and opportunities for all-girls school compared to all-boys and co-ed schools. simply put, society still has more faith in a man's prospective success than that of a female. unfortunately, viewers must wade through about an hour and a half of the adventures of oversexed girls to discover this point. and then it all ends in a rather unbelievable five minutes when the girls stage a rebellion to keep the board of trustees from allowing their all-girl school to go co-ed. so much more could have elevated this stupid star vehicle to a rather informative position. oh well.

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** This was a really fun movie! Kirsten Dunst was great, and completely believable in her role as a mischief-making girl in the '60s. It wasn't the funniest movie I've ever seen (not by a long shot) but there were some parts that made me laugh out loud. The actor who played "Frosty Frost", as Kirsten Dunst's character nicknames him, was cute, as was Shawn Ashmore as the photographer. I also ADORED Monica Keena! The one bad part: how Monica's character turned out to be lesbian, after being being boy-crazy the whole movie. All in all, though, this is one of my very favorite movies. Rent it sometime!