Netflix released another anticipated rom-com film, “The Perfect Date,” on Friday, April 12. Like recent Netflix originals such as “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” and “Sierra Burgess Is a Loser,” this film is also a teen rom-com, yet it attempts to create a different storyline than the others.

“The Perfect Date” brings popular actors together such as Noah Centineo, Camila Mendes and Laura Marano. The film’s well-known cast is the reason why fans had high anticipations for the flick. In the film, Brooks Rattigan (Centineo) is a high school student who, with the help of a friend, creates an app in order to save up money to attend his dream Ivy League school. This app allows people to request Brooks to be their ‘perfect stand-in boyfriend.’

Celia (Marano) sparks the app idea, unknowingly, within Brooks. Celia had the potential to be a likeable character, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. It is not Marano’s fault though; the character wasn’t written well enough.

Brooks becomes Celia’s stand-in date for a school dance, and she was not who he expected at all. A friendship unsurprisingly forms between the two different personalities. At the dance, Brooks sees and falls for Shelby (Mendes), a rich popular girl from Celia’s school and the complete opposite of Brooks. Once again, the unpopular boy falls for the popular girl, and watchers are able to predict the outcome of Brooks and Shelby.

Once Brooks begins his stand-in date service, there is success and an expected montage of all the dates Brooks works. His service being successful did, of course, bring trouble. This film fails to create a plot that is unpredictable. The nerdy boy makes new friends, aims for a goal he must work hard for, falls for the pretty girl who is out of his league and so on. This storyline has been done plenty of times before, and seeing it being done again is unexciting.

Centineo, portrayed a similar character as he had in previous films. He has done an acceptable job portraying his past characters, but in the future he should stray away from rom-com movies because it is bound to become boring. Netflix plays it too safe by casting popular actors, such as Centineo, who they know will attract viewers.

Murph (Odiseas Georgiadis), Centineo’s on-screen best friend, is one of the underappreciated and actually likeable characters in the film. Murph’s character deserved more, but he was pushed to the side in the plot. If Murph had more part in this film, it could have been stronger.

Overall, this movie is yet another plain teen flick. There is nothing special about this movie, for that it deserves 2 out of 5 stars. The actors did what they were supposed to and that’s all; there was nothing extraordinary to be remembered. This movie might be best played as background noise when trying to sleep or washing dishes. “The Perfect Date” had to live up to the expectations that “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” set and unfortunately it failed.