SnoopyStyle Nancy Drew (Maggie Lawson) starts college with best friends Bess Marvin and George Fayne. She has garnered some fame from her sleuthing in River Heights High. Duke Shifflin is her journalism professor. Hank Luckman is bumbling student. Bess wants to pledge a sorority and Nancy goes in support. Christina 'Teeny' Timkins is the bossy girl who has to pledge her mother's sorority. Allison Price is Tri-Pi president. Her boyfriend star linebacker Jesse goes into a coma rumored to be drugs and Nancy Drew senses a mystery.I am not a big fan of Nancy Drew. I have never read any of the books. I don't know any Nancy Drew story. The TV Nancy Drew with edge for me is Veronica Mars. Nancy is new to college and it would be better for her to start out alone. While Bess and George are a part of her series, nothing is more TV than having a bunch of kids go from high school to college together. That's not a good thing. I rather have the teen Nancy Drew in high school. This is starting a teen soap in year five and that's usually a rough spot on the decline for almost every one of these shows. This is never going to work as a pilot.

bkoganbing As feminist role model for young women, Nancy Drew can't be beat. She's eternally popular whether it's Bonita Granville in the Thirties, Pamela Sue Martin in the Seventies and now Maggie Lawson for the new millenia. Maggie is a worthy addition to her predecessors.Nancy competes with men at their own game and shows them up quite frequently. She's intelligent, pretty, resourceful, who wouldn't want a girl like her or be threatened by her if the male ego wasn't too secure. Brett Cullen is her infinitely patient father Carson Drew who while he keeps cautioning her, really admires how his daughter has turned out.Nancy's a little older now, she's in college as a journalism major, this generation's Nancy has grown up with tales of the exploits of Woodward and Bernstein and for one who's got a terminal case of snoopiness, this is the field for her.When a star halfback on the school's football team has a stroke at the ripe old age of 20, her curiosity is more than piqued. She's got quite a scoop when it turns out he's been taking performance enhancing steroids. But is it illegal and if so, where does the blame lie?Sabine Singh turns in a nice performance as the halfback's girl friend and Nick Stabile is around as Nancy's ever dependable friend Ned Nickerson. In keeping with the updating of these stories, Ned's a computer geek now and his expertise in hacking, helps Nancy get her story and nearly lands her in jail.This version of Nancy Drew is nothing great, but it's every bit as good as the B picture product Warner Brothers did back in the day. And Nancy is still the best investigator around.

ZachStoleMyCowsName I am a die-hard Nancy Drew fan. I haven't yet spoken with someone who has sat through this entire movie and said "I really liked it. I really, really liked it." Maggie Lawson is a good actress, I'll give her that - in fact, a lot of the people on the movie are decent - if not great - actors. But no amount of talent could fix the scripting issues here.Seriously, I have never watched a movie like this - it's completely unique! It's hides its plot so well taht it took me 5 times watching it (a JOYFUL amount of time which I shall never get back) to actually understand what happened, who do it, and what they did. I'm not joking. It takes a really long time to comprehend what's going on.And now for the characters - look, I don't mind it if you want to make Nancy Drew you're own, but this was ridiculous. Nancy's father seemed to be the biggest problem for me. His character was no where near the supportive, caring single-father of the books. He was really mean, and insensitive to Nancy.Now, if you're a "die-hard" fan like me, you'll also notice how inaccurate the film is. (Non-diehards might want to ignore this paragraph.) Mostly it's little things. The name of the University is wrong. Nancy's dog was not named Butch, and was not a large breed. Things like that which Disney really could've stood to fix. But there's also problems with things like characters.Although, in the movie's favor, they did pick a really good-looking Ned (even if he has a total of 10 seconds screen time - accurate, if you've read the "On Campus" series).However, if you really love Nancy Drew, there's no stopping you from watching this I've learned. I say, go ahead, it's worth seeing once (heck, it's not like any of the other Nancy Drew films have been any better), if only to laugh at.

Neil Doyle Maggie Lawson has all the necessary All-American Girl looks to play the feisty teen-aged sleuth and she's okay in a fast-talking way to be convincing as an investigative detective. But unfortunately, the plot gets bogged down in a lot of petty sorority doings without a hint of mystery showing up until later on--and by that time you don't care.The Nancy Drew of old is not here--instead we have a brassy, overbearing heroine with a rich girl background and her equally obnoxious teen-age girlfriends all given the latest slang expressions and one-liners in a script that's determined to update the famous series if not improve it. None of the happenings have the sort of mysterious quality called for in the Carolyn Keene mysteries.Another bad case of "updating" in an attempt to modernize the old-fashioned charm of the original. It rings false from beginning to end.