From Justin to Kelly

From Justin to Kelly is a 2003 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Robert Iscove & written by Kim Fuller, starring "American Idol" contestants Kelly Clarkson (who was the winner of the show's first season) and Justin Guarini (who was the runner-up to Clarkson on the show's first season).

The film was released on June 20, 2003 by 20th Century Fox and is considered one of the worst films ever made.

Plot
Set in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, "From Justin to Kelly" is about a waitress named Kelly (Kelly Clarkson), a waitress from Texas and a Pennsylvania college student named Justin who meet in Fort Lauderdale during spring break & come together through their interest in music.

The movie also features several other romantic situations involving Kelly & Justin's friends.

Kelly's friend, Kaya falls in love with a charming bus boy named Carlos while her other friend, Alexa is scheming to keep Kelly & Justin away from each other. As for Justin's friends, Justin's friend, Brandon constantly gets on the wrong side of a beach patrolwoman and his other friend, Eddie trying to hook up with a cyber-pal

Cast
Justin Guarini as Justin Bell
 * Kelly Clarkson as Kelly Taylor
 * Katherine Bailess as Alexa
 * Anika Noni Rose as Kaya
 * Brian Dietzen as Eddie
 * Greg Siff as Brandon
 * Jason Yribar as Carlos
 * Christopher Bryan as Luke
 * Theresa San-Nicholas as Officer Cutler
 * Justin Gorence as Greg
 * Kaitlin Riley as Ashley
 * Marc Macaulay as Mr. O'Mara
 * Jessica Sutta as Bracelet Girl
 * Zachary Woodlee and Robert Hoffman as Featured Dancers

Production
"From Justin to Kelly" began filming from January 7, 2003 to February 14, 2003 & was filmed in Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood & Miami, Florida.

Because of their contract and commitment to "American Idol", Kelly Clarkson & Justin Guarini were contractually obligated to participate in the movie despite Clarkson begging the creator of "American Idol" to let her out of the contract of filming it.

Release
When 20th Century Fox announced their plans to release "From Justin to Kelly" on VHS & DVD six weeks after its theatrical release, some theater chains threatened not to screen it. In the end, Fox relented and pushed the movie's release date a couple of months.

After the film's poor performance at the box office, Fox released it on home media on August 26, 2003.

Box Office
"From Justin to Kelly" debuted at #11 at the box office behind The Matrix Reloaded, grossing $2,715,848 during its opening weekend with an average of $1,357.

By the end of its run on July 24, 2003, the film had grossed $4,928,883 in the domestic box office. Based on a $12 million budget, the film was a box office bomb.

After only five weeks, the movie closed in theaters on July 24, 2003. It had grossed $4,928,883 in the domestic box office & based on a $12 million budget, the film was a box office bomb.

A month after the movie closed in theaters, Fox released it on VHS and DVD on August 26, 2003.

Critical Reception
"From Justin to Kelly" received negative feedback from critics.

On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 10% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 63 reviews; the average rating is 2.7 out of 10.

According to the consensus: "A notorious stinker, From Justin to Kelly features banal songs, a witless plot, and non-existent chemistry between its American Idol-sanctioned leads."

On Metacritic, it also has a score of 14 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 16 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike".

The Los Angeles Times described it as "relentlessly inoffensive, innocuous and vacuous."

Jack Mathews from the New York Daily News wrote that the movie was "more than awful, more than dreadful, and easily the worst beach movie ever made."

Entertainment Weekly film critic Owen Gleiberman wrote in his review of the movie: "How bad is From Justin to Kelly? Set in Miami during spring break, it's like Grease: The Next Generation acted out by the food-court staff at SeaWorld."

Lou Lumenick of the New York Post said that the movie was "arguably the most insipid movie released so far this century."

Accolades
"From Justin to Kelly" is listed in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book "The Official Razzie Movie Guide" as one of "The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made."

The choreography was considered so bad that a special Golden Raspberry "Governor's Award" was created as an excuse to present the film with a Razzie award.

However, "From Justin to Kelly" was better received by the Teen Choice Award as it was nominated for two "Choice Movie Breakout Stars" (for Justin Guarini and Kelly Clarkson) and "Choice Chemistry."

Time Magazine described the movie as "a monstrous Idol movie musical that in the most generous light is the worst film so far this century".

In a later interview, Kelly Clarkson admitted she only did the film because she was contractually obligated to do so, saying: "I knew when I read the script it was going to be real, real bad, but when I won, I signed that piece of paper, and I could not get out of it."

Total Film magazine ranked it at #16 in their list of "66 Worst Movies Of All Time."

It was also nominated at the Stinkers Bad Movies Awards for awards such as "Worst Picture," "Worst Director" (to Robert Iscove), "Worst Actor" (to Justin Guarini), "Worst Actress" (to Kelly Clarkson), "Worst Fake Accent-Female" (to Kelly Clarkson), "Worst On-Screen Couple" (to Kelly Clarkson & Justin Guarini) and "Worst On-Screen Group" (to the Pennsylvania Posse) and won the award for "Worst Song" (for the song "Anytime").