| A Cinderella Story
THE standards by which parents judge school holiday movies tend to be more elastic than those applied at other times of the year.
It's a matter of sanity, rather than plot, character development or cinematography.
However, I would rather babysit a houseful of bored'tweens for an entire wet Sunday afternoon than watch this insipid, contemporary remake of the classic fairytale for a second time.
The Prince And Me had Julia Stiles. Even The Princess Diaries 2 managed to produce a real-life castle.
But Hilary Duff's latest puff piece doesn't have so much as a decent wardrobe to distract us from its myriad shortcomings.
The tale of a downtrodden Valley girl exploited by her botox-addicted stepmum (Jennifer Coolidge) is so dull and insipid, the filmmakers were unable to come up with an original title for it, so they settled for a generic brand description instead.
A Cinderella Story, directed by Mark Rosman, transplants the original fairytale to a modern American high school, hooks Cinders - aka Sam Martin - up with her prince via the internet and substitutes a mobile phone for the glass slipper.
As well as the ugly stepsisters, there is a self-absorbed head cheerleader to compound poor Sam's misery.
A Cinderella Story's got real problems when even the ballroom scene fails to spark.
This one makes The Lizzie McGuire Movie look deep.
Stars: Hilary Duff, Jennifer Coolidge and Chad Michael Murray
Director: Mark Rosman
Rating: PG
Verdict: 1 out of 5
The Daily Telegraph | |
