9. John Tucker Must Die (2006)
Based on: The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare
I fully admit I initially had no idea that this early 2000s rom-com starring Brittany Snow and Jesse Metcalfe (which changed LIVES, people!!!) was based on one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known plays: The Merry Wives of Windsor. While the movie sees a group of high school girls come together to get revenge on the serial cheater who played them all, the play is a bit more complicated — it focuses on the Henry VI character of Sir John Falstaff, a penniless knight who decides to romance two wealthy (and married) women, Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, in an attempt to line his own pockets. It all backfires, of course, when his servants tattle to the husbands of the women, and the women themselves discover his ruse. From there Falstaff gets an embarrassing taste of his own medicine, resulting in a comedy that marked a lighthearted departure from Shakespeare’s usual tragedies.
