6 reviews
"A Cinderella Story" is yet another instance of Hollywood taking a classic fairy tale from the Middle Ages and doing it up in modern dress. This one is set in the "Valley Girl" world of snooty bitches and pimply-faced teens, where love blooms in internet chat rooms, and romantic encounters are reduced to an endless exchange of poorly spelled and ungrammatical text messages.
The story begins in the 1994 San Fernando Valley when Sam's deliriously happy childhood is shattered by the sudden death of her father in the Northridge earthquake of all things (I wish I were kidding about this, but I'm not), leaving her to suffer under the iron fists of a wicked stepmother and two equally repulsive stepsisters. (One wonders what Sam's lights-out time must have been, since the quake in the film occurs while her father is reading her a bedtime story - a bit odd considering that the actual shaker took place at 4:35 in the morning). The film quickly moves to the present day, where we encounter a teenaged Sam living a life of sheer, unadulterated drudgery, while still yearning for that fairy tale prince to ride into the scene and take her away from it all.
To more comfortably accommodate the contemporary setting, all the magical elements of the story have been effectively eliminated and only the romantic clichés remain. Thus, the fairy godmother has been converted into a sassy waitress who watches over Sam and provides her with the gown she needs at that crucial Cinderella moment; the ball has become a high school Halloween dance; the glass slipper has morphed into a left-behind cell phone (though little is actually ever done with that); and Prince Charming is no longer the heir to an entire kingdom but rather a hunky quarterback with dreams of going to Princeton (ha ha) against his father's expressed wishes.
Hilary Duff doesn't exactly embarrass herself in the role of Cinderella, but she is forced to struggle with a screenplay overflowing with annoying, over-the-top stereotypes and teen romance banalities. And the movie boasts a penultimate scene at the big championship football game that will have the girls in the audience sighing with satisfaction - and the boys groaning in pain.
With one preposterous scene after another, this lame and insipid, by-the-numbers concoction is an insult to thinking teens everywhere.
The story begins in the 1994 San Fernando Valley when Sam's deliriously happy childhood is shattered by the sudden death of her father in the Northridge earthquake of all things (I wish I were kidding about this, but I'm not), leaving her to suffer under the iron fists of a wicked stepmother and two equally repulsive stepsisters. (One wonders what Sam's lights-out time must have been, since the quake in the film occurs while her father is reading her a bedtime story - a bit odd considering that the actual shaker took place at 4:35 in the morning). The film quickly moves to the present day, where we encounter a teenaged Sam living a life of sheer, unadulterated drudgery, while still yearning for that fairy tale prince to ride into the scene and take her away from it all.
To more comfortably accommodate the contemporary setting, all the magical elements of the story have been effectively eliminated and only the romantic clichés remain. Thus, the fairy godmother has been converted into a sassy waitress who watches over Sam and provides her with the gown she needs at that crucial Cinderella moment; the ball has become a high school Halloween dance; the glass slipper has morphed into a left-behind cell phone (though little is actually ever done with that); and Prince Charming is no longer the heir to an entire kingdom but rather a hunky quarterback with dreams of going to Princeton (ha ha) against his father's expressed wishes.
Hilary Duff doesn't exactly embarrass herself in the role of Cinderella, but she is forced to struggle with a screenplay overflowing with annoying, over-the-top stereotypes and teen romance banalities. And the movie boasts a penultimate scene at the big championship football game that will have the girls in the audience sighing with satisfaction - and the boys groaning in pain.
With one preposterous scene after another, this lame and insipid, by-the-numbers concoction is an insult to thinking teens everywhere.
This movie is dumb and cringy with some terrible performance. Sure, its mildly entertaining, but overall its boring and dumb. It could've been worse, I guess.
- invisibleunicornninja
- Apr 7, 2018
- Permalink
1. they could have had a better actress 2. if it had creativity
Although Cinderella is my favourite fairy tale, "Ever After" (the one with Drew Barry Moore) was a thousand times better than this. This was way too boring and cliché (no creativity as mentioned above).
And no offence to duff (it's not personal) but they could have had someone more suitable for prince charming. He was tall and skinny, but she was too short and had pudgy arms. Her acting was also not believable. They did not look good together.
Overall it was OK (3/10 stars), though I wouldn't call this great. It is mostly for little girls who wear pink tiaras.
Although Cinderella is my favourite fairy tale, "Ever After" (the one with Drew Barry Moore) was a thousand times better than this. This was way too boring and cliché (no creativity as mentioned above).
And no offence to duff (it's not personal) but they could have had someone more suitable for prince charming. He was tall and skinny, but she was too short and had pudgy arms. Her acting was also not believable. They did not look good together.
Overall it was OK (3/10 stars), though I wouldn't call this great. It is mostly for little girls who wear pink tiaras.
This movie was clearly not the best. Perhaps if another actress, besides Hilary Duff portrayed Sam(Cinderella) then the movie would be more enjoyable. However, Hilary's acting skills are quite poor and her "tween dream" image ruined the merit of her supposedly being an outcast. Every moment watching her act almost made me choke, I was disgusted with her "talent". However, the story I suppose was OK. Excluding the fact that a real hot high school jock would not be interested in Princeton, and especially not interested in a girl like Sam. Sure, they attempted to prove to the world that high school rankings don't matter, and theirs more to people than meets the eye, but I sure didn't buy it, and I don't think anyone else did.
So readers, If you haven't seen this movie, consider yourself lucky. The only part of this film I found enjoyable was JD Pardo, who played Ryan, one of Austin's friends. He is extremely attractive, talented and charming, and although his role was small, he gave me a reason to actually continue watching this movie.
So readers, If you haven't seen this movie, consider yourself lucky. The only part of this film I found enjoyable was JD Pardo, who played Ryan, one of Austin's friends. He is extremely attractive, talented and charming, and although his role was small, he gave me a reason to actually continue watching this movie.
- Wildcherry805
- Jul 6, 2006
- Permalink
- anaconda-40658
- Jul 28, 2015
- Permalink