PLOT: Three spurned girlfriends of the high school basketball star, played by Jesse Metcalfe, plot their revenge in this teen comedy. The idea is to get him to fall for a fourth girl (Brittany Snow) and then get her to dump him.

We've all known the most popular high school jock who always gets the girls, often treating them badly in the process.

So most of us will be able to relate to the teen comedy, John Tucker Must Die, in which Jesse Metcalfe, best known as the teenaged gardener who has an affair with the much older and married Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) on Desperate Housewives, plays the title role.

The twist here is that that Tucker has three spurned girlfriends -- the smart reporter wannabe (Arielle Kebbel), the head cheerleader (Ashanti) and the vegan activist-slut (Sophia Bush) -- who all find out about each other and recruit a fourth new girl (Brittany Snow) to exact their revenge.

The plan is to make Tucker fall for Snow's character and then break his heart once he does, humiliating him all along the way.

While it's no Heathers, in that the quartet doesn't actually want anyone dead, there are some truly dark and funny moments throughout with director Betty Thomas (The Brady Bunch Movie, I Spy), setting just about the right tone.

Thomas wisely doesn't belabour the light plot, provided by first-time feature writer and TV veteran Jeff Lowell, keeping the movie to a nicely paced 90 minutes.

There's also plenty of teen-friendly music -- hot U.K. act People In Planes play at Tucker's b-day -- cool clothes and gorgeous Vancouver scenery thanks to where the movie was shot.

Unfortunately, Metcalfe's clean-cut appeal is lost on me and he's just not that good an actor in his feature film debut and neither is the wimpy Snow (American Dreams), as pretty as she is.

The three scorned females, however, are good in their respective roles, particularly Kebbel (Aquamarine) as the know-it-all smartypants and Bush (One Tree Hill) as the loose vegetarian.

Penn Badgley is also quite appealing and charming as Tucker's younger brother, Scott, who also happens to be Snow's lab partner in chemistry.

Jenny McCarthy is perfectly adequate as Snow's "hot" single mom, who has a rotating lineup of men whom her daughter has taken to calling "Skip" -- because that's what they always do.

BOTTOM LINE: It's a problem when your supporting players are better than your two leads (Jesse Metcalfe, Brittany Snow). However, as teen comedies go, this one has some funny and dark moments as a tale of three girls' revenge against the high school basketball star.

(This film is rated PG)