High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008)

Stars: Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman, Olesya Rulin
Genre: Musical, Romance, Family
Rating: C+

The third and, thankfully, the final installation in the High School Musical series, High School Musical 3: Senior Year picks up as the Wildcats are preparing for their high school graduation and the spring musical.  Kelsi (Rulin) has signed up everyone for the show and Gabriella (Hudgens) convinces them to do it - because, of course, singing and dancing still isn't cool, even though this is the third film in the series about the same kids singing and dancing.  It's also revealed that four of the students (Kelsi, Sharpay (Tisdale), Ryan (Grabeel), and Troy (Efron)) are being considered for one scholarship to Juilliard.  Gabriella, meanwhile, has been accepted to Stanford and has an opportunity to go early, despite the fact that she's committed herself to the spring musical.

The overall story of this movie is somewhere in between High School Musical and High School Musical 2. Once again there is a complete revert to start in terms of character development, Sharpay, Ryan, and the Wildcat boys having learned nothing from their experiences in the first two films.  The whole "we have to convince everyone to participate in the musical because they think that singing and dancing is lame" plot is lamer than singing and dancing appears to be in this universe.  It's been done to death and just in the course of three movies.  Likewise, the Sharpay is an evil bitch plot has been done to death.  I'd be fine with it if at the end of each movie she didn't seem to grow as a person and realize that her actions are wrong.  This is also seen, to a lesser extent, with Ryan, although his turn face isn't nearly as complete.  I was, however, really satisfied with the way that the plot was resolved - although I was rather annoyed by Gabriella's behaviour.  To me, it was rather un-Gabriella like, although I will say that it was a nice change in pace; usually I'm annoyed by Troy's behaviour.

In terms of music and general production, High School Musical 3 is far better than it's predecessors, a clear sign of its inflated budget.  Of the three films this was the only one to be released in theatres, the other two having been TV movies.  The music isn't oh my God amazing, but it's catchy and even features a bit of a shout out to the earlier movies.  The singing is still good and the lyrics aren't too ridiculous.  The musical numbers are also a lot flashier.  They looked more like what you would expect from a Disney type movie.

New Year's Eve (2011)

Stars: Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Jon Bon Jovi, Abigail Breslin, Ludacris, Robert De Niro, Josh Duhamel, Zac Efron, Héctor Elizondo, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Seth Meyers, Lea Michele, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Til Schweiger, Hilary Swank, Sofía Vergara

Director: Gary Marshall
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Rating: C-

When you get an ensemble cast like the one in New Year's Eve you should be able to expect something good.  There are a lot of big names in this film and so despite it being a romantic comedy you should be able to expect it to be something great - you look at a movie like Love Actually and expect something great.  New Year's Eve is a failure in that sense; despite having a stellar cast, it's really not that good of a movie.  In fact, I doubt the word 'good' should be used at all when discussing this film.

New Year's Eve is a series of vignettes set on, surprise-surprise, December 31st, in New York.  Swank plays the Vice-President of the Times Square Alliance and is in charge of the ball dropping on time - the biggest event of the year for Times Square.  Despite the importance of her job, however, there's a meeting at midnight that she's debating going to, as is encouraged by her friend Ludacris. Berry is a nurse caring for terminal patient De Niro, who speaks fondly of memories of seeing the ball drop and only wants to see it happen once more before he dies.  Elsewhere in the hospital, parents-to-be Biel and Meyers are anxious for their baby to be born, even more so when fellow expecting parent Schweiger lets slip that the hospital gives a huge bonus to the first baby born in the hospital in the new year.  Pfeiffer is a wallflower of a woman who has quit her job and hired Efron in order to help her make a list of New Year's resolutions come true.  Meanwhile, Bon Jovi is attempting to rekindle his romance with ex-girlfriend Heigl.  Upstate, Duhamel is stranded after a friend's wedding; he must get back into the city in time to give a speech at a ball, but there's the memory of a girl he met on New Year's Eve the year before, and a promise to meet her again that's hanging over him.  Parker is a somewhat highly strung single mother who is planning to do nothing on New Year's Eve but watch the ball drop on television with her daughter, much to daughter Breslin's disappointment - she was hoping to go to Times Square, without her mother, and experience her first kiss.  Oh, and Kutcher and Michele get stuck in the elevator to their building.

There are two major signs in that this movie isn't good; first of all, I skimmed a lot and yet I still had to write 300 words to summarize the film, and second of all, without going onto Wikipedia, IMDb, or another website, I am unable to tell you the name of a single character in the film (other than Jon Bon Jovi's Jensen, whose name is said a lot).  There are so many characters and different plots in this movie that it's hard to summarize it with less.  There's a lot going on, and as a result you really don't get the chance to know and love nay of the characters.  The only character who I really felt like I understood and had a feel for were De Niro and Berry; I was really moved by his struggles and desires and the way that he hopes to make it to midnight.  Beyond that, though, none of the characters were particularly moving.  Sure, some of the stories had potential and could have been great if they were developed more... but in the span of a single movie there was just way too much going on.  You didn't get the chance to care about the characters - you didn't get the chance to learn their names.

The only way that this film is able to really be coherent despite the lack of development is the fact that New Year's Eve borrows heavily from plots of other movies.  The guy who proposes to his girlfriend, gets cold feet and runs, then tries to make things up?  I've seen it.  The couple who's competing with another couple over something ridiculous? Seen it.  The guy who's in love with the woman that he's met once years ago? Seen it. Dying guy wants to make things right with his family?  Wallflower who finally works up the nerve to pursue her life long dreams? Person who has a major deadline for work and has to deal with things going wrong?  Mother has to figure out how to deal with her teenager? Seen it, seen it, seen it, seen it.  Oh, and pair who've never met before get stuck somewhere and have to deal (and of course fall in love)?  Yeah, seen that one too. My suggestion for anyone debating seeing New Year's Eve is to watch Love Actually if you're looking for a touching holiday-themed movie filled with love and vignettes or see one of the many other romantic comedies out there that focus on at most a couple plots and actually develop them.

High School Musical 2 (2007)

Stars: Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman, Olesya Rulin
Genre: Musical, Romance, Family
Rating: C

High School Musical 2 picks up a bit after where its predecessor left off, at the end of the school year, as our favourite geeks and jocks begin to worry about summer jobs – and our ever villainous theatrical types prepare for their summer of leisure at the country club their parents own.  Sharpay Evans (Tisdale) now has her sights on Troy Bolton (Efron), and decides that in order to get him she should have him hired to work at her club.  Somehow, this transpires into all of the Wildcats being hired at the club, because evidently when you’re in a Disney high school you have to work with all of your friends.  Life’s just like that.  Because of Sharpay’s influence Troy is able to rise in the club and gain the attention of the University of Albuquerque’s basketball team, while his friends are forced to wait tables.  Oh, and Sharpay is also manipulating the scene so that Troy will sing at the club’s annual talent show with her and not girlfriend  Gabriella Montez (Hudgens).

Where to start…. The high point of this film would be in its music, which is for the most part a lot better than the music in High School Musical.  The singing itself is good in both, but in this one the lyrics aren’t nearly as cheesy.  Some of the dancing is, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.  I should note, that the comment on the music being better does not descend to anything sung by Ryan (Grabeel) and Sharpay, which was just all kinds of bad.  The story, is a completely different issue.  As clichéd as the plot was in High School Musical it was at least good.  In fact, it was very Shakespearian, clearly having been inspired in part by Romeo and Juliet.  This story is not as good.  Following the character development in the original movie, Sharpay does a complete heel turn and digresses back to her original character.  The same can be said of Troy’s basketball friends, who are right back at hating singing and dancing like they were in the original movie – they even sing a song about it.  Troy too is back to not wanting to sing and dance, despite having enjoyed doing so previously.  It kind of makes me wonder just what the purpose of High School Musical was – beyond setting up the cannon couple.  My one favourite part of this movie, however, was Ryan’s character development, as he goes from being his sister’s lacky to a genuinely nice guy.  Somehow, I suspect the change won’t stick for High School Musical 3.

High School Musical (2006)

Stars: Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman, Olesya Rulin
Genre: Musical, Romance, Family
Rating: C+
 

This is a bad movie.  It is cheesy, over the top, juvenile, and really kind of lame.  The singing is good, but the actual music is rather ridiculous.  If you don’t enjoy lame, cheesy musicals, don’t see High School Musical.  That having been said, while High School Musical is lame and cheesy and overall bad, it’s also fun.  And good, but in a “why am I enjoying this” kind of way.  If you enjoy cheesy Disney musicals, then this is the movie for you.

Troy Bolton (Efron) and Gabriella Montez (Hudgens) have chemistry from the first moment that they sing together, at a New Years Eve party they both attend while on a vacation.  As circumstance would happen, Gabriella transfers to Troy’s school in the new year, and pretty quickly the pair begins to stir up trouble.  Troy is the captain of the school basketball team and as their biggest game of the season is coming up his team is counting on them to lead them to victory.  Gabriella is pretty much a genius, and the school’s scholastic decathlon team really hopes that she’ll join and lead them to victory.  Meanwhile, auditions for the school musical are occurring, and both Troy and Gabriella are interested in joining.  Attempts to thwart this desire come from all sides: the basketball team, lead by Chad Danforth (Bleu); the scholastic decathlon team, lead by Taylor McKessie (Coleman); and regular musical stars, Sharpay (Tisdale) and Ryan Evans (Grabeel).  The only person who seems to actually be on their side is pianist and show writer Kelsi Nielsen (Rulin).

Once again, this movie is silly and juvenile.  The singing is what I would expect from a Disney production, but the actual music is not – although, I do have to say, the songs are catchy, and after watching it I found myself singing the closing song, “We’re All in this Together.”  The plot is somewhat completely ludicrous, and utilizes the age-old trope of various cliques within a high school being set against each other.  The way that they all come together in the end, however, is rather heartwarming.  This isn’t a movie that you should really expect much from, or think too much about, but rather watch when you just want to be entertained. 

Charlie St. Cloud (2010)

Stars: Zac Efron, Charlie Tahan, Amanda Crew, Kim Basinger, Ray Liotta
Director: Burr Steers
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Rating: C

I suspect that I enjoyed Charlie St. Cloud far more than I should have.  Which is a lesson learned; when watching bad movies, it is recommended that one do so in the company of friends who will thoroughly make fun of it with you.

The plot of the movie is very straightforward and rather clichéd; think of it as a more predictable, romantically inclined The Sixth Sense.  Actually, no, to say that is a bit of an insult to The Sixth Sense.  Rather, Charlie St. Cloud is more like The Invisible, but with a happier ending.  If you’ve never seen The Invisible, don’t, it wasn’t good.  But, back to Charlie.  In this film we have the eponymous character, Charlie St. Cloud (Efron), a recent high school graduate and prospective Stanford University student who is an amazing sailor.  One day he and his younger brother Sam (Tahan) are in a car accident; Charlie is revived by a paramedic (Lolita), but Sam dies.  Not all is lost, however, as before his brother’s death Charlie promises to never leave him, and thus after his death Sam is able to appear and the two practice baseball every day at sunset.  Five years later, after Charlie has effectively given up his life in order to stay with his dead brother, Charlie re-meets Tess Carroll (Crew), a girl he went to school with and a fellow sailor.  They bond and slowly fall in love, but it isn’t all what it seems.  Eventually, Charlie must choose between his dead brother and this new love.

There is a bit more to it, but I’m refraining from expanding so as to not spoil.  The plot, however, is ridiculously obvious, with the foreshadowing being dropped as heavily handed as an piano falling from an upper floor of a tall building.  Just where they were planning on going with the plot was rather obvious, so much so that the friends I was watching this film with and I were trying to predict the ending at most half way through it.  We weren’t exactly right, but at the same time we were pretty close.  The ridiculing that we gave the movie was probably the best part of it itself, as was the commentary on the similarities between Charlie St. Cloud and Logan Thibault of The Lucky One.  The one thing that Charlie St. Cloud does have going for it is the beautiful backdrop; but then, as it was filmed in the Vancouver area, I’m somewhat biased.

The Lucky One (2012)

Stars: Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling, Blythe Danner
Director: Scott Hicks

Genre: Drama, Romance

Rating: C+

There once was a time when hearing Nicholas Sparks’ name attached to a movie meant that you were going to fall in love with the characters and end up bawling your eyes when the ending failed to be happy.  It’s all a part of the formula of a Nicholas Sparks movie; two messed up people meet and fall in love, overcome the obstacles to their relationship, and just as you think they might get a happy ever after one of them dies. And as depressing as that sounds, it’s what I’ve always liked about his movies, the cry at the end.  Sadly, The Lucky One, while being a Nicholas Sparks movie, falls short of this goal.

Logan Thibault (Efron) is a U.S. Marine who, after surviving a somewhat disastrous night raid, finds a picture of a beautiful young woman (Schilling) in the sand. This photo becomes a talisman that Logan believes has kept him safe so when he returns to the US and is unable to adjust to life outside of the armed forces he decides to walk to Louisiana, across the continental US, to find the girl in the photo.  The girl, Beth Clayton, is in many ways as damaged as he is, although in a very different way.  She is struggling with her brother’s unexplained death in Iraq while raising her son and dealing with her rather abrasive and potentially abusive ex-husband.  Beth is initially suspicious of Logan, who cannot bring himself to tell her just why he’s sought her out, and is rather annoyed when her grandmother (Danner) gives him a job.  Despite her initial hostility, the two grow close and begin to form a relationship, although the secret of why Logan came to Louisiana hangs over them, as does the imposition of Beth’s ex.

I actually enjoyed the acting in this film, despite its rather hokey premise.  The problem with The Lucky One is that it’s really rather melodramatic, with too many different elements to the plot going on.  Efron is a war veteran whose survivor’s guilt appears to disappear quicker than it appears.  That in itself is believable; what is harder to contend with is the many layers of drama that is Beth Clayton.  She’s a struggling single mother, trying to raise her somewhat awkward son in the way that she sees fit, with the threat of losing him to her powerful ex, the cop and the son of town judge and mayor hopeful.  She lives with her sick grandmother, was orphaned at a young age, and is struggling with the loss of her brother, who she was very close with.  Also, she can be a bit of a bitch.  It’s all just a bit too much to deal with, and could use a bit of simplification.  Or, perhaps, a lot of simplification.  I can deal with the idea of a guy finding a picture in Iraq and feeling that it keeps him alive so he goes in search for her.  I’m fine with her being a bit of a wreck because she’s still not come to terms with the loss of her loved one.  The rest was just a bit unnecessary, and the more it piled on the more I started to question the plausibility of it.  I enjoy the two messed up people meet and, defying the odds, fall in love formula that is Nicholas Sparks.  But in The Lucky One it just falls short of achieving the greatness that some of his earlier films had.

Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (2012)

Stars: Danny DeVito, Ed Helms, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Betty White, Rob Riggle

Director: Chris Renaud and Kyle Balda
Genre: Animation, Comedy, Family

Rating: C+

I was a bit disappointed by The Lorax.  The trailer for it made it appear to be a fun movie, a bit of comedy, a bit of romance, a bit of suspense, and the occasional musical number.  While technically it did follow through with this, it did so in a manner that left me wanting.  The story overall was good in theory, but somewhat poorly executed.  In many ways the walled city of Thneed-Ville appears to be a utopian society; everyone’s pretty happy and gainfully employed, and everything is very, very clean – largely due to the complete removal of nature.  Rather than have real trees, dirt, and everything that comes with that the world is covered in cement, Astroturf, and blow up trees, and oxygen comes in bottles.  Everyone is completely satisfied with this state of affairs – everyone, that is except Audrey (Swift), who dreams to see a real tree.  Enter protagonist and love interest Ted Wiggins (Efron), who sets out to find a tree for her, taking him beyond the walls of Thneed-Ville to the home of the Once-ler, who tells him the tale of the Lorax and the trees.  This brings him attention to corporate giant Aloysius O’Hare (Riggle), who has made his fortune from selling air and consequently does not want anyone to bring back the trees.

If you think that this sounds like an environmentalist, anti-corporation film you’d be right, and in that manner it does justice to the book that it’s based on.  I have no problem with the message in general, and in general it’s handled well although a bit heavy handed at times.  Some of it made me roll my eyes, particularly in regards to the use of bottled air, especially as there’s a lack of continuity there – the Thneed-Villians have to buy air for their home, but have no problem breathing outside, it’s just when they leave the city that this becomes an issue.  There is a difference between the ending of the book and the film; in the book, it’s rather ominous and fore boarding.  There is a sense of hope, but just a sense.  In the film, however, things are a lot happier in the end and there is a resolution.  Given the nature of the issue, however, I was a bit disappointed that there was a resolution; it’s an ongoing issue, and I disliked the way that it was resolved with a nice little song and dance.  The point of the book is that there is more to the issue of saving the environment than just the trees, but the trees provide a start.  The film implies more that if you save the trees then you save the world, and everything is hunky dory afterwards.

Other problems… I wasn’t amazed by the voice acting.  It really seemed a bit half assed, which was disappointing given some of the actors.  I don’t really expect much from Taylor Swift or Zac Efron when it comes to acting, but I do have expectations with other cast members, especially Betty White.  Danny DeVito was great, but I think his role was somewhat sidelined, which is odd given as he played the title character.  I was especially disappointed by the Once-ler.  In the book he’s a rather foreboding character, hidden except for his green arms.  It’s easy to believe that he’s this formerly malevolent character, who has seen the err of his ways and holds the last hope for humanity.  In the film, he’s really just a pathetic character who failed to listen to the Lorax, who didn’t have any real power to begin with, then faded into legend as the world was left to deal with the consequences of his actions.  It was a disappointment, as was the film overall.