Cute movie with lots of laughs and teen attempts to change the world. I enjoyed this one for the humor and the realistic aspects of what teenagers can and will do. Young love not to be over looked. Whether prep school, college or finishing, kids will find a way to out smart the school administration and that's what this movie is about. If you want humorous entertainment, this is the one for you.
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acearms20 October 2003
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From the moment Odette Sinclair sets foot in Miss Goddard's School for Girls, disaster is sure to follow. She then hooks up with members of the DAR (Daughters of the American Ravioli), a secret club of girls who discuss their futures over ravioli. Then comes the big news: Miss Goddard's may go co-ed. The group splits up over this issue, but then are reunited when they realise how awful the St. Ambrose students are (with a little help from some local townies).
It also doesn't matter that Tweety is bulimic, or that Odie hates being separated from her boyfriend; nothing matters anymore when the girls come together to fight the boys. I thoroughly enjoyed the film...and I'm in my early twenties, for pete's sake!
Up your ziggy with a wa-wa brush! -
Scarlet1327 December 2001Okay, so that's a little much. But seriously, this is one of the funniest teen-related movies I've seen, and I've seen most of them. The cast is delightful, especially Kirsten Dunst as Verena, the quick-witted ringleader of the Daughters of the American Ravioli. She and her friends Tinka, Tweetie, and Momo take Odette, a new student at Miss Goddard's School for Girls, under their trouble-making, big-dreaming wings and try to stop their beloved school from going co-ed. It sounds like a thin premise for a movie, and maybe it is, but the characters are real and humorous and some of the scenes are extremely funny. The dance, where Verena and Momo spike the punch and intoxicate the choir boys of St. Ambrose, is hilarious, especially if you can pick out Hayden Christensen as a drunken student. And Tom Guiry, Scotty Smalls of "The Sandlot" fame, grew up and got himself some muscles. My one real problem with this movie was Gaby Hoffman as Odette. She was, for the most part, the one dull person in a crowd of comical characters. Her main goal is to be an "ex-virgin" and then become a politician. She's rather boring and expressionless compared to the rest of the DAR. This movie is funny and charming and perfect for a group of girlfriends to watch together. I'd suggest it along the same lines as "Ten Things I Hate About You." I give it 7 stars out of 10.
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movies2u30 January 2002All I Wanna Do, or Strike was a great and funny movie. I don't know why it's called Strike on this website, but on the cover it says All I Wanna Do. This movie had a great cast: Kirsten Dunst, Gaby Hoffman, Lynn Redgrave, Rachael Leigh Cook, Heather Matarazzo, and Matt Lawrence. This movie is about Miss Godar's School For Girls, and when Odette comes, she meets Verena and all of her friends, and becomes a part of a club that is named after cold raviolies, is held in the attic of the school. Then, when Miss Godard's school is to become a coed school, the girls have something to say about it, and plan to ruin the Ambros School for Boys permanantley! This is a real feel good comedy. I give All I Wanna Do a 10 out of 10!!! :)
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michaelRokeefe29 August 2001Cute and sassy. Both the movie and Kirsten Dunst. Also known as ALL I WANNA DO. Miss Godard's School for Girls is about to go coed. A small group of students led by Miss Dunst gather around cold cans of ravioli to plot their futures and scheme of ways to stop their school from merging with an all boys school. Not total girlish whimsy...there is the underlying recognition of togetherness. And some girls even have ambition. No brainer, but enjoyable.
Very fine support from:Gaby Hoffman, Rachel Leigh Cook, Monika Keena and veteran actress Lynn Redgrave. -
Ddey658 April 2004There's much more to this movie than such sitcom catchphrases as "Up your ziggy with a wa-wa brush," and "Masterly." As I said in my comment on "Can't Hardly Wait"(1998) this is the kind of movies that teenagers need, and I didn't just mean teenage boys. Unfortunately, this was in and out of the theaters much too quickly. The only reason I saw it was because it was on Encore as part of a block of movies that were introduced by Alison Sie, who I'd like to thank for letting us know about it. To make matters worse, in order to see the more suggestive and erotic aspects of this movie, you'd have to go to Canada. We Americans are being ripped off.
Our story begins in early 1963, where a Motor-City Maiden named Odette Sinclair(Gabby Hoffman) is determined to lose her virginity, until her mother catches her with a birth-control device and ships her and her horse off to Miss Goddard's School for Girls, an all-girls boarding school, supposedly in Connecticut which she think is "surrounded by high walls and lesbians." The high walls part is right, but the "lesbians,..." you'll find that out later.
While at first she and they want nothing to do with each other, eventually they warm up to her and decide to help her out, by getting her to join an organization called "the Daughters of the American Ravioli." Miss Godard's Girls aren't just "talented and organized," they're the wildest boarding school girls since The Belles of St. Trinian's, and believe it or not, kind of cute too. This is helpful, because they're not afraid of their sexuality and know how to use it to get what the want at a time when girls(especially upper crust ones) were expected to be "prim and proper." The Flat Critters are the geekiest greaser gang ever to grace a period piece movie from the 1950's or early-'60's. And they also become a suprising relief in the face of a potential merger with the St. Ambrose Boys' Academy. St. Ambrose Headmaster Armstrong(Michael J. Reynolds) sounds like the narrator on "Underdog"(1964), and if I had been a kid in that period, I would've sworn he did that on the side. Nevertheless, it's the arrival of the St. Ambrose school for a school dance/test merger that leads to a prank rivaling some of the teen movies of the late-1970's and early-1980's. And when that doesn't work, Odie leads them all on a major student strike!
In defense of us guys, I'd like to point out that when we lust for you women, it's not a conspiracy to drag you down to the bottom of the economic totem pole. It's just a conspiracy to get you into our beds, or get into yours. Perhaps over 20 years ago when I was a teenager I might not have understood the desire to keep such schools separate, but I can see the reasons now. Not that I'm endorsing sexual segregation, mind you. I'm just endorsing this movie. -
porterkelly5 June 2001Okay, so maybe this is a chick flick, but it's a good one. It's a great rental to watch with your girlfriends. All of the leads are terrific and Rachel Leigh Cook is particularly entertaining as the goody-goody antagonist.
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Starbuck-1312 February 2001This is a nice teen movie with the interesting edge that it's playing in the 60's. It is far from spectacular, but a nice movie to watch when you want to have some fun.
Monica Keena is extremely gorgious, Kirsten Dunst is playing with sweet fervor and after a rather slow hour, the movie is heating up when the boys from the boy school are coming for a visit.
Good entertainment even when you're a male! -
Quinoa198413 September 2018According to David Kehr's review (which is posted on Letterboxd if you want to find it), he referred to this movie sort of literally as "homework" since, once it got wrested by the clutches of (sigh, fine, "alleged") rapist Harvey Weinstein and Miramax - and why they even greenlit this in the first place is sort of a mystery to me , producer Deutchman (a film professor at Columbia) posted notices all over the place for people to go see it... Well, anyway, if this is homework I wish I could do more of it!
This is a fun and peppy and completely up-with-women AND perhaps more importantly outside of Hillary Clinton (for what it's worth) is the most up-with-women-as-political-heroes comedy that isnt funny LOL like as it is amusing and consistently clever. I could see someone not liking it on the whole because of how broad and big some of the gags go for, but what this filmmaker was going for - having this teen sex comedy (here PG13 I believe) set in that same just-before-fall63-spring64 period when everything changed and can thus join the company of little films like National Lampoon's Animal House and American Graffiti but for girls - was a more than valid idea, and the movie has a lot to say about systemic patriarchal structures as far as economy and social placement in life go. Not to mention all of the major performances from Dunst, Redgrave, Matarazzo and especially Hoffmann who is really the protagonist amid the ensemble, are all having a great time.
... Oh, and try as he might, Vincent Karthiezer is still only giving his second most obvious character/performance here (this before of course Connor on Angel cemented #1 for him). If nothing else, it may be the ultimate sign of success that Weinstein's name is not Executive Producer on the film. -
HollyNickeson11 October 2002***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!
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David N.6 April 1999As a 20-year-old male, I realize that I am not the target audience for "Strike!" (is the exclamation point part of the title?). This is a film aimed at teenage girls and it is designed to make them giggle, cheer, and revel in the joys of being flighty and immature. Telling the story of a girl's prep school, the movie puts forth a strong message of female independance and pride.
But, wow, is it a bad film! Good intentions aside, this thing made me wish for the disciplined, mature filmmaking of "Now and Then." Forgettable characters, cliched situations, and a flat script make this bastion of girl power tired, obnoxious, and moronic.
It is hard to dismiss the offhand way the film deals with bulimia and sexual harassment. We learn early on that Tweety (the wonderful Heather Matarazzo) barfs up every meal she eats, fearing she is too fat. The film never, NEVER does anything to resolve the issue; it is as if Tweety's bulimia is a CHARACTER TRAIT, played for comic relief. God. Also, when a teacher tries to hop in the sack with Odette (Gaby Hoffmann) it is dealt with in a whimsical, "hilarious" manner.
The plot is crowded and not very interesting. Boys, co-ed education, strife among friends, yadda yadda yadda. These things are part of a teenage girl's life, I know, but you know why these make uninteresting topics for a movie? BECAUSE THE LIVES OF TEENAGE GIRLS ARE UNINTERESTING!!!! This film is a celluloid version of YM magazine; glossy, hollow, and superficial.
The one redeeming feature is the actors. Lynn Redgrave is fabulous in the tired role of the strict yet kindly headmistress. Hoffmann and Matarazzo are good, Kirsten Dunst is strong, and the rest of the cast is effective (with one notable exception, see below). The highlight, though, acting-wise is the charming Rachel Leigh Cook who gives her role a brightness and depth it doesn't deserve. Cook is not just another pretty face; she can really ACT. Someone please give her a movie deserving of her talents.
The notable exception would have to be the entire gang of Flat Critters, lead by the smarmy, irritating Vincent Kartheiser. If there was anyone as false and one-dimensional as this terrible character in real life, they'd be beaten half to dealth. The whole Flat Critters posse is another fake nail in this movie's coffin of artificiality. -
i_luv_pf22 January 2005This has got to be my favorite movie of all times- i've watched it at least 50 times, and I know the entire script! its about a girls school, and they found out they're going to merge with a boys school, so they try to stop it at all costs. It shows i twisted version of how life was back then, and its hilarious to see all their plans to stop the merger.
Kirsten Dunst is the leader, and she's great at it! Also Gaby Hoffman is the new girl and is split between whether to support th merger or be against it, as half the DAR(daughters of the American ravioli- they eat canned ravioli in a secret room in the attic of their school)love boys and want to go through with the merger, and the other ones think it will pull down their grade average, and all their friends will become bimbos to impress the boys. She doesn't want to lose either of her friends, so tries to be for it and against it at the same time. It shows that not all teenage girls at girls schools are obsessed with boys, and even though it's a bit over-the-top, it's so fun to watch. I give it 2 thumbs up- definitely a must see! -
johnny-14317 June 2001I appreciate this film, even if I don't like it much. It helps if you went to an all girls school and have had some of these experiences. But the plot isn't much to speak of, and a lot of the performances are simply over the top. It's shot poorly and the music isn't very good, but some of the performers are quite game, including Kirstin Dunst and Monica Keena. Overall, I guess this would be a nice way to spend a rainy afternoon with your girlfriends, if you're 15 years old and in school.
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anaconda-406589 September 2015Strike (1998): Dir: Sarah Kemochan / Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Gaby Hoffmann, Rachel Leigh Cook, Lynn Redgrave, Vincent Kartheiser: Combination of National Lampoon's Animal House and Rock N' Roll High School but lacking the comic wit of both. Title refers to Kirsten Dunst's refusal to change. Hopefully after being part of this film she will require a major change. An all girl school is threatened with the possibility of going co-ed. This threatens misfit Dunst who is often late for classes and sabotages anything she considers a threat. Gaby Hoffmann is the new student who believes that the school should speak out. Vulgar and somewhat sexist with Dunst stashing liquor bottles about a bus and the boys who arrive innocent end up puking on everything. Directed by Sarah Kernochan with some fine location areas. This film is also saddled with several names, which can be a bitch when locating it. Dunst and Hoffmann play opposites but neither character obtains a personality. Dreary supporting work by Rachel Leigh Cook as the standard rival who will stop at nothing to expose Dunst. Lynn Reggrave plays the headmistress who cannot think for herself. She is suppose to be in charge but too often she is taking advice from people who are seen as total morons. Everything seems recycled and terribly dull but its message at least rings true. Strong co-ed theme elevates but the crude humour poise a strike against it. Score: 3 / 10
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famousgir118 May 2001Strike is a great teen 'girl-power type' film with a cool cast including: Kirsten Dunst, Gaby Hoffmann, Monica Keena and Heather Matarazzo who are all brilliant in their roles. Might I just add that the film also includes some VERY cute guys. Anyway, if you like all the other teen films about, I'm sure you'll love Strike. I give the film a 10/10. Great!
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Samaramax13 February 2005I loved this movie! I first saw it right before my freshman year in high school. It was something that I watched many times because I thought it was hilarious, due to the fact that it reminded me so much of my High School. At my all girls boarding school it was funny to look around and see all of the characters and issues. Sure this movie is a chick flick for the younger crowd but I think anyone who ever went to a boarding school, especially an all girls school, can relate to it. Girls who see this movie want to be part of it and the girls that have a life like this love to see the movie. What do girls wanna do after all but have fun!?
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SnoopyStyle28 December 2013Odette (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. -
It is definitely a movie that touched my heart and made me moved to LOTS of tears!
I've recommended this movie to some friends, expecting them to feel the same way that I felt. It's so good to see somebody playing your life in a movie.This is a movie based on a private girls' boarding school and also a true story happened on the director herself years ago, in her teenage life.
In the movie, those girls have dreams of their own. And they all achieve their goals after stepping into the grow-ups' world (they really are very successful in real world). I was touched because I saw how much they cherish each other's secret and how heartedly they help each other through the difficulties in reaching out for their dreams. I , like them, have lived in a all-girls boarding school for 6 years. The movie reminded me those times at many nights, in our beds, my friends and I listened carefully to each other's dream about future, we share our young hearts, just like the girls in the movie do.
I don't know what other people would think of this movie, especially males. But after reading some critics about this movie, I know that it is time for girls to stand out. There has never been any movie like this to tell what a girl really wants and how we girls think ourselves are. Any girls who have spend their teenage time in Wesley would love this movie like I do , because during the movie I cry out several time that" it's just like what we do in school!". I think mothers would love this film because don't they always want to know what their girls are doing in school! Also teachers in school would pleased to see this movie because many things they want these girls to know but don't know in what way to teach them is the best way are shown in the movie. We will all smile and understand that what a girl's responsibility is to respect our own dream and to think that we are so important.
Strike is definitely fitted to girls who want to prove the real woman in them. It shows how friendship will eventually conquer all. I really liked this because it showed the value of friendship and trust in our teenage life. I hope everyone has a great time seeing this because I did. -
fairygirl41122 June 2002OK, so first off I think this was one of the dumbest movies I've ever seen -- teen chick flick with no substance. That said, I'd watch it again anyway. In fact I rented it and watched it twice in a row -- it's kind of addictive. The fairly-awful script admittedly has its funny moments of deliberate self-mocking. But it also keeps trying to be serious when its anything but.
The cast: Gaby Hoffman drove me nuts throughout the film. Kirsten Dunst does a decent job, but her role is generic -- the same goes for "Welcome to the Dollhouse" nerd-goddess Heather Matarazzo and "Dawson's Creek" bad-girl Monica Keena. But there were some surprisingly nuanced turns -- Lynn Redgrave, who plays a militant yet sensitive headmistress is never anything short of sublime, and I particularly enjoyed the performance of Rachael Leigh Cook, whose snotty yet obviously insecure goody-two-shoes steals the show. I also liked Vincent Kartheiser in a rare turn as a not-so-bad-guy -- he made me laugh.
This movie is something to watch with your girlfriends when you're in the mood for fluff -- right up there with "10 Things I Hate About You." But it's not winning any awards for originality or depth. -
poem2 February 1999I've seen this movie three times, and even if it wasn't too successful in cinema, (no surprise - the german title was "Maedchen an die Macht" - "maiden should get the power", and it looked like a movie for children), I think it is a masterpiece. I was fearing it could be only a feministic 'who needs a story? we are political correct anyway' like that 'G.I. Jane'-thing, but it isn't at all.
Well, the story itself is that a girl (named Odette Sinclair) is put into a woman only school, for her parents found out she wants to have sex with her boyfriend Dennis. At the beginning, she really hates this place; but then she finds friends under the other girls, especially she joins a secret pupil gang named "Daughters of the America Ravioli". The leader, Verena von Stefan, tries to help her with her plans about Dennis. One of the maiden, Tinka Parker, found out that their school, due to financial problems, will merge with a boy school. The reactions of the girls are quite different, for some are happy and some are angry about that.
The whole plot is excellent, the main characters are described in a very detailed and realistic way, but at the same time this film is very funny, for it shows the weaknesses and strengths of the persons in it, so one can recognize oneself or others one knows in them. Not only the girls, but also the boys and the adults are described very well, I especially had to laugh about Dennis (the boyfriend of Odette) which remembers me about myself, when I was in that age (knowing nothing about women). Also there are such real-life-like jokes that a girl which doesn't want a boy at all suddenly - and in the totally wrong moment - gets one, while the other which has missed her boyfriend all the time finally finds out that this boy knows nothing about her and that she has to leave him.
This picture is full of this, it is one of the seldom movies one may watch multiple times without getting bored by it. -
capone66625 January 2016Strike!
Teenagers aren't allowed to vote in federal elections because they always select: D) All of the Above Candidates.
Luckily, the ladies in this comedy are more astute than their contemporaries.
To keep her away from her boyfriend (Matthew Lawrence), Odie (Gaby Hoffmann) is sent to an all-girls school where she aligns herself with the less reputable students (Kirsten Dunst, Monica Keena, Heather Matarazzo, Merritt Wever).
When it's announced that the school will amalgamate with the boys' academy, the girls set out to stop the merger by demanding that the board of trustees allow them to vote on the co-ed matter.
Also known as All I Want To Do, this subliminal salute to the suffrage movement isn't as superficial, flippant or as badly acted as most of the Girl Power movies from the late nineties.
Moreover, the only thing that girls learn at a co-ed school is where to buy Plan B.
Green Light
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JOF23 November 1999I sat in the movie theater, I knew this feminist film would be horrible. Now, some people would tell me, it's because I wanted it to be horrible. I just say no. This movie could be amusing interesting and passionating for some 7 year old girls who want to become feminists. But men, when you have to sit there and wait for the time to pass just don't think about it as a movie better think of it as trash.
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Steph-8728 August 1999I went to see this movie on my 15th birthday. The theatre was quite empty, considering it had just come out. One of the problems was that it was given such bad reviews by all the newspapers. The problem is the reviews were written by middle aged men, which is definitely not the target audience. No wonder it didn't do well. I loved the movie. Every second, every scene. I wished I were one of the main actresses in it. I was a fan of almost all the main actresses, Kirsten Dunst, Gaby Hoffman, Rachel Leigh Cook, and the actress who played Tinka. The whole movie looked like a lot of fun. Though it was full of cliches, it was still worth seeing, and I would see it again, and again, and again, if it wasn't for the fact that I can't find it in any movie stores. This is definitely a movie that you would want to watch with your best friends, with a pint of ice cream.
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FlickJunkie-224 June 2000Usually I enjoy high school hijinks movies, but this one was vapid. The story revolves around five girls at an all girls prep school, four of which have the IQ's of one of Tiger Woods better rounds of golf. As usual in these movies, we are treated to the escapades and mischief cooked up by bored teens, this time female style. Unfortunately, most of the skits were woefully unfunny and stereotyped.
As the movie progresses, we learn that, out of financial need, the school intends to merge with a local boys' school and go coed. The girls try to sabotage the plan with a plot at the next mixer to make the boys look like drunks and perverts. When that fails, the film starts taking itself very seriously and the girls organize a student strike and lock themselves in the dorm demanding the right to vote against the merger.
The direction of this film by writer/director Sarah Kernochan was uninspiring. Other than some decent sixties props it was pretty insipid. Kernochan made a splash as the co-writer of 9 ½ Weeks' and Sommersby', but as a solo writer/director she just doesn't cut it.
The acting; well, there really wasn't any acting. Other than Lynn Redgrave, who was far too melodramatic for this film, all we had here was a bunch of pubescent teens behaving sillily. The only serious teenage character in the film was Odette (Gaby Hoffman) and she was far too dour and condescending.
This movie is pretty much a disaster. It had a couple of funny moments but they were far too sparse. I gave it a 3/10. I would only recommend it to girls 10 to 18 years old, or to anyone else who needs a 90 minute nap. -
soda_pop4118 January 2000This story is about the teenage girls who plays the dirty tricks on the school boys from the different school and saving the girl school in danger. I watched this movie in the theater AND with VCD and I love this movie. My boyfriend slept in the theater, though. Maybe this movie is NOT for the boys. Chris is a BIG fan of Kirsten Dunst and Gaby Hoffman, but he said he just didn't like the movie. I thought Kirsten Dunst played Verena really well. She's such a intelligent actress in Hollywood. Rachael Leigh Cook was cute in the movie playing a spoiled girl. I give 8 out of 10. If you want to watch a movie like this, rent 'Now and Then'. You'll see Gaby in 12.