My Review of "So Undercover"

So Undercover came out back in 2012 and its surprising how fast things change. Back in the day this movie would have been pretty acceptable and even ahead of its time. Today it sort of feels dated and somewhat amateurish in terms of movies even for a kid made for young adults.

This movie starts off with the main character Molly. She's in her late teens I assume. They don't really tell you how old she is. Yet she is some sort of private investigator. She's taking pictures of various men performing adulterous acts. She follows them anywhere with her trusty camera to take photos of them in the act.

The crazy thing is that I guess her father taught her everything she knows. He's actually trying to help her out with her missions as well. They work as a team to capture these cheating men. I guess it's their family business. The father used to be a police officer but got fired because of his addiction to gambling. He still has issues with his gambling and this doesn't really get addressed at all throughout the movie. I found it was kind of weird that they don't really address it because the amounts that he gets into trouble with are substantial.

One day this guy Armon tracks her down and tells her that he needs her expertise for an assignment with the FBI. The whole thing seems kind of hokey but you just go with it because it's a teen movie. So he somehow convinces her to help him protect this girl who's father is to be involved with some unsavory characters.

The assignment involves Molly to go to a college sorority to protect a girl so she has to get used to the sorority culture. I guess it's a bit of a culture shock as she has to change her look as well as the way that she talks.

From there on it becomes a movie about Molly learning about her fellow sorority sisters and learning new things about the case. This movie sort of reminds me of the movies Miss Congeniality and The House Bunny. They kind of have the same formula as these aforementioned movies. So if you liked this movie you might like those as well. This is definitely a kids version of those movies though.

Molly seems more similar to the main character of Miss Congeniality. She's quite sarcastic and doesn't seem to want to get to know anyone in this movie. Obviously she warms up to them eventually but in the beginning she's can be a little harsh.

The sorority sisters that live with her are all extreme characters. There's a girl by the name of Cotton in this movie that seems to be extremely dumb. It's such an exaggerated version of idiocy that it is quite comical. There is some comedy in this that adults can appreciate. They're sprinkled throughout the movie and if you blink you might just miss them.

Back in 2012 this movie may have seemed acceptable but things have changed now in 2020. The production of this film is quite low compared to what we're used to even for young adult movies. I remember the time that this movie came out and it did seem like a much more innocent time. You'll notice that there's less talks about sex and drugs in this movie than we have today.

There's a nice little twist to the movie but there seems to be a bit of a pacing issue with this movie because some of the things happen a little too fast and abrupt. Then again I understand because it's a young adult movie so they probably assumed kids don't have the attention span to wait around for things. That's why the pacing kind of makes sense even though it doesn't really do this movie that well.

Overall, I was still able to sort of enjoy this movie as I watched it like a made for TV movie. I didn't have very big expectations so it was just as I expected. I have to give this movie a 6 out of 10. I thought it will appease a lot of young adults looking for a fun young adult spy movie.