Pretty On The Outside, Hollow On The Inside

If “Boys and Girls” came in a can, it would be white with a couple of black stripes on it.

A movie as utterly generic as its unpromising title, “Boys and Girls” is useful only as a nicely illustrated Fodor’s Guide to San Francisco, where it’s set.

In fact, the movie is so completely uninterested in its own characters that, through myriad montages of San Francisco beauty, we end up knowing the city better than most people who live there.

Unfortunately, those people include Freddie Prinze Jr. and Claire Forlani as a boy and a girl. I can’t tell you much more about their characters because the movie doesn’t, but, apparently, they’re in love.

Here’s the theme of the movie and, I warn you, it’s a controversial one: Boys And Girls Like Each Other, But They Don’t Always Understand Each Other.

The one new thing in “Boys and Girls” is “The Blair Witch Project’s” Heather Donahue in her first non-nose-dripping role. Otherwise, it’s a retread of last year’s “She’s All That,” featuring the same movie studio, male star, director, basic plot and device of stopping the action dead for a production number set to a big-beat dance hit (“Boys and Girls” uses “Stop the Rock,” an inferior retread of “Rockafeller Skank” from “She’s All That”).

In addition to ripping off countless other teen romances, “Boys and Girls” makes the colossal mistake of having Forlani attend a double bill of “Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club,” thus reminding us of two movies we’d rather be seeing.

And it also has one of its characters say, “Being with you was like going to a place I’ve never been before.” Funny. We feel like we’ve been there a million times.

This sidebar appeared with the story: “Boys and Girls” Locations: North Division, River Park Square, Spokane Valley, Coeur d’Alene Cinemas Credits: Directed by Robert Iscove, starring Freddie Prinze Jr., Claire Forlani, Jason Biggs, Amanda Detmer, Heather Donahue Running time: 1:45 Rating: PG-13