The movie is set during spring break in Miami, Florida. Pennsylvania college student Justin (played by Guarini) meets Texan Kelly (played by Clarkson), fall for each other, and then spend the rest of the movie trying to get together.
The movie was mercilessly derided by critics and performed dismally at the box office, despite its association with the popular television show. In an interesting twist, theater chains were originally threatening not to book it at all, as distributor 20th Century Fox — probably knowing they had a flop on their hands — had planned to rush the movie to VHS and DVD a mere six weeks after its theatrical opening. Fox pushed the scheduled video date back a number of months, but when the movie tanked in theaters, they reinstated the original release plan.
The film seems to enjoy continued distribution on airline inflight entertainment systems, inspiring the joke that the audience there has little opportunity to escape.
Users of the Internet Movie Database have voted the film a prominent position on the site's list of the 100 worst films ever made.