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Another Cinderella Story (2008)
A New and refreshing retelling of an old Classic!!!
Cinderella has been retold far too many times to even count, what made this version stand out is the way it was delivered, how the events are arranged and the inclusion of an aftermath after prince charming found his one true love.
The movie was directed with great attention to character development. The story kept the balance between realism and fantasy. We all know Mary in the story is just studying due to school privileges and doesn't have the money to go to dance school so what does she do? She sneaks in and through the mirror emulates the dances of the more privileged kids, we always see in movies the line: "Try your best" but in this story, Cinderella finds a way to make her dreams come true, she is strong-willed and kind at the same time. When her sisters show her video as a kid dancing, she fought back with getting the tango tape and letting prince charming know she is the one. A very different approach to the meek and kind Cinderella we all know.
With regards to Joey, the prince of the movie, very well played by Andrew Seeley. Makes you wonder why he didn't land the role in High School Musical, his dance moves are not the best out there but very far from average. His acting is subtle but at the same time very convincing. His expression when he touched the mirror during the dance rehearsal was spot on and very indicative that he felt that the person of his dreams are on the other side of it. The chemistry of their characters is undeniable.
The evil stepmother has a lot of dialogue that pokes at pop icons, wash out artists and teenyboppers, if you can keep an open mind, it is hilarious. Jane Lynch really got into character, you want to hate her but you can't help but love her in the movie.
The choreography is great especially the mirror scene which I reckon will be happily remembered and Andrew Seeley's final stage performance was very professional, it looked like a real concert of a pop icon. Whoever thought of those deserves a pat in the back.
Overall, do not look for depth in this movie. It is meant to entertain us, not make us think nor try to be smarter than it really is. It is a fresh take on an old classic and does so beautifully.
High School Musical 2 (2007)
Improved Acting, Bad Writing and Really Bad Directing
I am sure that these has already been mentioned in most comments so I will just highlight the important ones.
Plot: We all know that this is movie made for television but it doesn't excuse anyone to be sloppy with writing it. Sequels have expectations to live up to and this one clearly didn't. The comment Jason did on Ms. Darbus' class was already used in the first one, to relieve the tension in the class I am sure that the creative people at Disney could have made another attempt at a different line or comic relief.
Also when making a plot for a sequel, one must consider what happened in the original film. In the first film everybody were friends in the end but the sequel continued as if there were no character development for the 2 main protagonists and 2 main antagonists. It started off Ryan and Sharpay still hating Gabriella and Troy. Troy doesn't do musicals when it was clear in the first movie he wants to do musicals. I thought Gabriella would be left unscathed but after her little argument with Sharpay by the pool, I spoke too soon.
Songs: Most of the songs I heard from original movie was a mixture of pop and show tunes. In this one I have to say it's more for the Billboards than for a musical. The duets didn't help at all, I felt that the song was made to fit the singers and did not reflect the intention of the songwriters on how their songs should be sang. I am positive that if a tenor sang Troy's parts it would have more life to it, a baritone would be drowned out, the harmony wasn't there at all. If they release an album with Andrew Seeley and Vanessa Hudgen's duets on You're the Music in Me and Everyday on it, I'll buy it just to listen to a better performance. Also don't use a song titled I Don't Dance with a dance number, it insults the viewers' intelligence.
Continuity: It's the job of the director to pay attention to details hence I blame most continuity issues on bad directing. While Gabriella sang her solo the necklace was popping in and popping out of the scene. While Troy is singing the start of Everyday one scene has the wind blowing and the next scene his hair was combed to perfection and no wind, then the next scene it's windy again......
I am pretty sure that lots of people will still watch this just to know what happens next. High School Musical 2 has a lot of built-in audience from the original but the truth is it was made to promote the actors themselves and not the characters they are playing....