The New Guy

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The New Guy
Directed by Ed Decter
Produced by Greg Silverman
John J. Strauss
Written by David Kendall
Starring DJ Qualls
Eliza Dushku
Zooey Deschanel
Eddie Griffin
Editing by David Rennie
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date(s) May 10, 2002 (2002-05-10) (USA)
Running time 89 min.
Language English
IMDb profile

The New Guy is a 2002 American teen comedy film directed by Ed Decter. It tells the story of a high school loser who assumes the identity "Gil Harris". Using that identity, he infiltrates the cool kids and temporarily becomes one of them; all because he used the moves he learned in jail to become cool.

Contents

[edit] Taglines

  • Popularity isn't a contest...It's a war.
  • A zero will rise...

[edit] Plot

The movie stars DJ Qualls as Dizzy Gillespie Harrison, a 18-year-old high school senior and nerd who always gets hassled by the jocks. In his younger days, he used to dance to 1970s funk music in gold shorts.

[edit] The Prank

The film starts with Dizzy and his friends going to school in his father's work van. After arriving at school and hearing a few EverQuest comments from Kirk, Dizzy helps Tina (the head cheerleader) in stopping her car alarm. Dizzy asks her to go out with him even though she is a cheerleader and he is a nerd but is rejected. Dizzy asks Tina out a second time once inside the high school and was promptly refused again. Even though Tina rejected Dizzy, the head cheerleader starts to hold on to Dizzy's hand just to see his penis become erect. Barclay and his friend point out the obvious nd Dizzy explained to Barclay that he had an "innocent conversation." However, the erect penis proved otherwise according to Barclay and his friend. Suspecting that Dizzy was sexually aroused by Tina's body, Dizzy's erect penis is first witnessed by a disgusted Dizzy.

After that, it is revealed to a disturbed Tina by Barclay himself. Tina finds the erect penis to be disgusting so Barclay moves Dizzy away from Tina. Barclay offers to "cover it up" but he actually actually rips Dizzy's underwear from underneath his pants before Dizzy had a chance to respond. The remnants were placed on top of his head to make sure that everyone else in school saw Dizzy's erection except Dizzy himself. Without Dizzy knowing it, they were video-taping him so that he could be humiliated at at later date. Mrs. Whitman, the old librarian pops into the hall after overhearing all the commotion. Out of senility, she believes his penis to be a loaded weapon and plans to "confiscate" it to Principal Zaylor. Dizzy tries to remove her hand from his penis by turning his body so that he can "keep" his penis. The old librarian breaks Dizzy's penis; she grabbed on the penis too hard and Dizzy tried to turn her off too quickly.

At Kiki Pierce's office (which is lined with boy band posters, romantic hearts, and butterflies), Dizzy is told he has Tourette's Syndrome and is given medication. Technically, only doctors can diagnose and prescribe medications for Tourette's Syndrome - making her prescription illegal in real life. He takes an overdose of his medication. Neither Mrs. Pierce nor the family doctor (never seen or mentioned) has heard about this incident. After seeing a preacher and choir in the mall, he jumps on the stage and begins preaching about his experiences. As a result of this "crime," Dizzy is arrested and put in jail. After being arrested, Dizzy fell unconscious but eventually gains his consciousness after being jailed.

[edit] From Bitch to Bull

While in prison an inmate, Luther (Eddie Griffin) begins teaching him how to be cool. Luther had similar experiences in a previous penitentiary except that his penis was never broken. The first step in turning Dizzy from a nerd into a "big man on campus" is for Dizzy to get expelled from his high school. While trying to become as tough as Luther, he cheats on tests, bribes authority figures, and video-taped his principal in the bathroom. He thinks that nothing will work because all he got was extra medication from the nurse and more therapy time. Dizzy was even told that "he had to stick around for another year." Dizzy finally gets expelled when he breaks a mop in an attempt to use to hit his principal's buttocks. After returning to prison as a visitor rather than an arrested criminal, Dizzy gets a makeover from Luther and his boys before being released into the real world.

This includes a new look (which is supposed to be Brad Pitt with a hint of Anne Heche), new moves, and a new persona. He enrolls in a new school under the alias Gil Harris. Pretty soon, people started to forget about Dizzy and talked about Gil instead. Meanwhile, Dizzy's alter ego Gil starts to gain respect from the jocks and geeks alike. In order to become even more cool and popular, Dizzy (a.k.a Gil Harris) has to beat up the biggest and baddest person in the school. Gil gets beaten at first, but when everyone leaves he comes back and beats up Connor Maguire. Connor is dragged into the hall by Dizzy/Gil so everyone can see his humiliation. After several failed attempts, he manages to pull it off. Dizzy then is noticed by the head cheerleader, Danielle (Eliza Dushku) who becomes his new girlfriend.

In a scene referencing Patton, Dizzy helps the school football team gain self-respect to win games. Eventually, he gets invited to a party. While partying with the cool kids, Dizzy shows lots of disrespect to the most popular person in school - making him look cooler. Dizzy eventually becomes the most popular kid in the school. However, Kiki urges Bear to question his son's new appearance and personality. Kiki also tells Bear to sell his house, quit his job, and supervise Dizzy at all times.


[edit] Dizzy's New Life as Gil Harris

Eliza Dushku trying on new clothes in The New Guy.
Eliza Dushku trying on new clothes in The New Guy.

While at the mall with Danielle, Gil runs into Nora (Deschanel), Kirk (Mixon), and Glen (Shen), his old group of friends. He is afraid that Danielle will think he is a loser so instead of talking to his friends, Gil pretends he doesn't know them and walks past them. This upsets his friends and they question what makes him any different from the popular kids that tormented him earlier. Gil learns that his current school's football team is playing his old school in the championship game. He is reluctant to go at first. However, Gil puts it behind him and leads his team to victory. The first thing that Dizzy does as Gil while re-entering his old school is to deliver a Braveheart-like charge into the stadium. Dizzy has not seen his old high school ever since the principal expelled him and the kids there might know as Dizzy (rather than Gil).

The team wins the game, but as they are celebrating, Barclay begins to recognize Gil as his old victim Dizzy. Connor, Danielle's disgruntled ex-boyfriend, begins investigating into Gil Harris' past to uncover any dirt on him, with the help of Barclay (who tormented Dizzy near the beginning of the film). Dizzy reunites his with his friends by setting Kirk and Glen up with the head cheerleader from his old high school that rejected him. Near the end of the scene, Kirk even gets to have sex with her for gratitious reasons not related to the story line. This leads to him finally understanding a funk song that stumped him since childhood. In the end, Connor projects the tape of Dizzy for everyone to watch while Dizzy is performing in his funk band at a large school dance.

The cover story was that Creed was to perform after Dizzy's Suburban Funk band; half of Rocky Creek High School bought the story even though it was printed on the back of old cafeteria menus. He attempts to explain his actions by admitting that he cared more about what other people thought of him than himself. However, the crowd never gives him a chance and the crowd starts to get ugly. Luther along with the rest of the Black Spiders from the prison enter the school dance to save the day and give Dizzy the opportunity to explain himself. He is booed off the stage to a chant of "Broke Dick" and is hit in the face by Connor. His friends pull him backstage behind the curtain. Once behind the curtain, Nora reveals her newfound courage was due to Dizzy and confesses her feelings for Glen.

Dizzy is eventually confronted by Danielle who tells him that she was once unpopular before she outgrew her braces and started developing her breasts. In the next scene, they kiss and the curtain is opened. The curtain would reveal to the audience a scene of Connor and his co-conspirator end up tied to chairs with rubber breasts in the same manner as Dizzy was in the beginning of the film. At the end of the film, David Hasslehoff was revealed to be the visitor Luther was talking to in the beginning.

[edit] Trivia

  • The cheer which Eliza Dushku leads before the football game is the same cheer which Kristy Swanson led in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The TV show which was based on this movie had Eliza Dushku in a recurring role.
  • The cool kids ignore Tony Hawk in the movie, making it look funny because Tony Hawk is one of the most popular skateboarders in skateboarding history.
  • In the prison scenes, there are drag queens, prison escapes, and male make-overs.
  • Dizzy (as Gil) mentions about Pearl Harbor being bombed. The jock thought that he was talking about the movie, and not the port and said that the "movie made money."

[edit] Cast

[edit] Protagonists

  • DJ Qualls - Dizzy Harrison/Gil Harris
  • Matthew Lee Pelosi - Dizzy Harrison (at a younger age)
  • Eliza Dushku - Danielle, the head cheerleader at Dizzy/Gil's new high school
  • Zooey Deschanel - Nora, the token female in Dizzy's funk band who gains courage near the end of the movie
  • Eddie Griffin - Luther, Dizzy's mentor during his time in jail; most notable for his "crazy eye"- which is an odd glare with a fierce taste enough to intimidate anyone until they cringe upon hearing the odd bull-whip like sound effect associated with the glare
  • Lyle Lovett - Bear Harrison, Dizzy's divorced father who has sole custody over him
  • Jerod Mixon - Kirk, Dizzy's friend who likes to play EverQuest on his personal computer
  • Parry Shen - Glen, one of Dizzy's friends who wears black glasses
  • Matt Gogin - Ed Ligget, diminutive tuba player who gets picked on by everyone except Gil
  • Charles Hutchinson - Lonnie, one of Dizzy/Gil's Highland High School friends who stands up for Gil when Barclay shows up to ruin his newly-found reputation

[edit] Antagonists

  • Sunny Mabrey - Courtney, the sex-crazed cheerleader that Gil snubs for Danielle
  • Rachael E. Stevens - Tina, the head cheerleader who refuses Dizzy and ends up becoming Barclay's girlfriend
  • Ameer Baraka - Barclay, one of the jocks who put rubber breasts and makeup on Dizzy
  • Justine Johnston - the 80-year-old librarian who broke Dizzy's penis in the film
  • Ross Patterson - Connor Maguire, Danielle's disgruntled ex-boyfriend
  • Geoffrey Lewis - Principal Zaylor, the principal who expelled Dizzy for breaking a mop handle
  • Illeana Douglas - Mrs. Kiki Pierce, the school's guidance counselor; she does everything in her power to prevent Dizzy from getting expelled so he can't start over in a new high school
  • Gene Simmons - the minister at the shopping mall; he preaches about abstinence to taunt Dizzy into replying that his penis is in the "right angle" and upstages him

[edit] Cameo appearances

[edit] Soundtrack

Songs that are featured on the soundtrack :

  1. "The New Guy" by Mystikal
  2. "I'm Just a Kid" by Simple Plan
  3. "You Really Got Me" by Eve 6
  4. "Keep the Party Goin'" by Juvenile
  5. "So Fresh, So Clean" by Outkast
  6. "Outsider" by Green Day
  7. "Uh-Huh" by B2K
  8. "So Dizzy" by Rehab
  9. "Breakout" by OPM
  10. "Dark Side" by Wheatus
  11. "I Love You" by Nine Days
  12. "Heart in Hand" by Vertical Horizon
  13. "Hi-Lo" by J.T. Money
  14. "Let It Whip" by SR-71

Songs that were featured in the movie but do not appear on the soundtrack include:

[edit] External links