There’s really no mystery why Hollywood keeps insisting on making teenybopper-themed films.

Ever since “Scream” and its sequel made hundreds of millions of dollars, movieland big-wigs have realized that teens will shell out the cash for films that don’t cost much to make and usually star the WB flavor-of-the-month.

Thankfully for the consumers, though, some of them are getting clever.

However, the reason for the increase in high-brow material is usually because the writers rip off on some classic storyline.

“Clueless” is Jane Austen’s “Emma,” “Cruel Intentions” was intended to be an update of “Dangerous Liaisons,” and “She’s All That” was just a revamping of “My Fair Lady.”

It’s a similar case with “10 Things I Hate About You,” which is a take-off of Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew.”

The movie starts off with the two Stratford sisters, Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) and Kat (Julia Stiles). Bianca is the “sweet, attractive” sister. You can tell this by the fact that she wears tight shirts with butterflies on them.

Kat is the angry feminist sister. You can tell this because she wears combat boots and listens to hard rock.

Everybody wants to date Bianca, but their obstetrician father (a hilarious Larry Miller) refuses to let his daughter date — unless, of course, Kat finds someone to date also. It sounds a little archaic, but keep in mind this is based on a centuries-old play.

Cameron (“Third Rock from the Sun’s” Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is one of those desperately smitten with Bianca, so he and his buddy Michael (David Drumholtz) go on a manhunt to find someone willing to go out with the feisty Kat.

They find Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger), someone who is every bit as nasty as Kat. (There’s rumors that he once ate a live duck — everything but the beak.) Cameron offers Patrick cold hard cash to tame the wild beast so he can have his shot with Bianca.

Not surprisingly, Kat isn’t too taken with this macho man at first, although it doesn’t take much more than a couple exchanges of witty banter between the two to get them to start falling in love. (Not too much of a shocker.)

So Patrick starts to dig her, and then he faces the big moral dilemma of the picture: How’s he going to explain to Kat that he likes her now, even though he was paid to go out with her.

I realize this is a teen flick, and character development isn’t supposed to be something that actually occurs. However, there are some glaring problems, ones that can’t be overlooked even though the movie’s target audience is 13-year-old girls.

The inconsistencies with Kat’s character proved to be more than a little confusing and somewhat obnoxious. In one party scene, after a couple of shots of tequila, Kat proceeds to get on a table and bump and grind like a fly girl with a huge crowd cheering her on. (And this is supposed to be an independent, militant woman?)

Even more disconcerting is a scene in which she tells Patrick she would never even dream about going to the prom with him, just because she doesn’t like the idea of the event. However, just a couple of film frames later, she shows up at the event decked out in a slip dress ready to party.

But, keeping in mind what exactly we’re dealing with here, “10 Things” is a pretty clever movie. The young cast is fairly talented, and the dialogue, excluding the “You suck” thrown in a couple of times, is sharp and chock full of pop culture references.

And the chemistry between Kat and Patrick is genuinely sweet, even if their relationship is more than a little contrived. Any moviegoer could appreciate the scene when he serenades her on the bleachers with the school band as his back-up.

3 1/2 stars out of five

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Kate Kompas is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from LeClaire.