1999, 1 hr 37 minutes. Rated PG-13 for crude sex-related humor and dialogue, alcohol and drug-related scenes, all involving teens. Dir: Gil Junger. Cast: Julia Stiles (Kat Stratford), Heath Ledger (Patrick Verona), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Cameron), Larisa Oleynik (Bianca Stratford), Larry Miller.

Why didn't I particularly care for 10 Things I Hate About You? Let me count the ways:

1. All adults are made to look like idiots. The father (Larry Miller) is over-obsessed with his daughters getting pregnant and makes them do weird things like put on a pad that simulates pregnancy before dates as a reminder of the evilness of sex. The teacher is more childish and insulting than his own students, the guidance counselor curses in front of the students while writing a pornographic romance novel, and the soccer coach/detention monitor is not-so-subtlely hinted to be smoking marijuana that he confiscates from students.

2. The students use vocabulary and phrases beyond their years, and even beyond Ivy League understanding. No, no "prithees" or "wheretofores" but not one "you know" or "like," in the film. And this is from a very, very white school.

3. Lame gags are tried and fail: a) guy accidentally rides down a steep hill after a car swerves in front, b) Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) shoots the archery instructor in the butt, c) meanie Joey draws male genitalia on a geek's face.

4. Apparently, alcohol binges lead to opening up of oneself.

5. Does every teen film have to have the complimentary walk-through describing the various stereotypes?

6. Kat (Julia Stiles) is an outspoken feminist, yet flashes the monitor as a way to distract him as her boyfriend Patrick (Heath Ledger) sneaks out of detention.

7. Cameron's friend is one of the most annoying people on the planet.

8. The high school is not a public school building, it should be featured on A&E's "America's Castles."

9. The music, tolerable most of the time, begins blaring out of the blue as if to say, "Hey, buy this soundtrack. Check out cool songs like this one."

10. Apparently, "being your own person" like Kat involves physically abusing people and continually using name-calling. No, that just makes you a bitch.

PLOT: In this teen adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew (a very loose one at that), Bianca is the pure and wholesome sophomore sister of Kat, a senior who does things her way, which usually involves pushing people down in a soccer match, ramming her car into the cool guy's Mustang or causing a fellow male student to require surgery in order to fix his testacle. Not to mention that she is a feminist and stoops to name-calling, albeit intelligent, as she looks down to her classmates.

Their father, who makes a living delivering babies and has seen his share of teen births, is especially strict on dating in that he doesn't allow his daughters to go out with the opposite sex. But, his genius knows no bounds, and he devises a plan that will surely keep Bianca single for awhile: she can date only when Kat does.

With the knowledge of this, new guy Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt of "3rd Rock From the Sun" fame) hatches a plan where Kat goes out with rebellious Patrick, who of course turns out to fall for her. Add some further teen hijinks and we have a movie, but one where you can check your imagination at the door.

What saved it from being a disaster is that I liked the characters. Patrick and Kat are a fun couple, and the scene where he sings "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" is the film's best. Who cares if it's been done a dozen times before?

Bianca is a girl that I would've fallen for hard in high school. She screams cute in everything she does. And her relationship with Cameron is fun to watch develop. Also a plus: chastity is made to be an advantage and not chided as "uncool."

In the end, at 23 it has been officially determined that I am out of touch with today's teenagers. When Bianca says "I like my Skechers, but I love my Prada backpack!" I had to do research to discover the former was shoes. And I never heard of the latter, either. I definitely will not see most of the other teen fare like Varsity Blues and She's All That because I am guaranteed that the verdict would not be much different than 10 Things....