The Challenge - Eine echte Herausforderung

Shane and Lizzie are sisters whose parents divorced. Shane went with her mother to California, and she cares about nature, she refuses to eat meat, and she practices yoga. Lizzie stayed with her father in the Washington, D.C., area, and she is intelligent, politically involved, driven to succeed, and carries a cell phone everywhere. Both girls want to change the world, in their own way.

Shane and the others wonder why there are only seven contestants when eight is normal. It seems Lizzie is late (unusual for her, actually), and when she finally does show up, Shane is not happy. Both girls come close to quitting.

The show is part 'Survivor' and part 'Fear Factor'. The eight young people are divided into two teams. Since the show is being filmed in Mexico, the teams are the Aztecs and the Mayans. Both sisters end up on the Mayan team.

As is often true in Disney movies, the ones you don't want to win get ahead in the competition, and you begin to wonder about the team you support, who are subjected to humiliation whenever they fail. But both Shane and Lizzie contribute unique abilities to their team, so there is a chance.

Though I have seen only clips of reality shows, I thought the 'Challenge' program seemed very realistic in its presentation, as if I was watching that show rather than a movie about it. The acting performances were stereotypical for the most part. But I especially enjoyed the conceited swimmer on the Aztec team. And I can't help but like those Olsen twins. At times, especially in the blooper reel at the end and in the interviews that appeared on the 'Challenge' program, they seemed more sophisticated than the cute little girls we have come to know. But they have yet to shake that adorable image.

It wasn't a great movie, and not a classic by any means, but it was Disney-style fun.

In my opinion, this has to be the best Mary-Kate and AShley movie I have seen and I am a fan so I have seen quite a lot of them! The sister's true personalities come out more in this movie and it's a lovely plot including them as estranged sisters getting to know each other better, which ironically also helps the audience get to know them as individuals too.

One of my favourite bits of this movie is actually the names of M-K and A's characters, as unlike many of their previous movies, their names don't begin with M & A, like their on names and they are left to be individual on their own, instead of by their names. If you understand what I'm trying to say here....

Anyway, a great movie worth a watch, especially if you're a Mary-Kate and AShley fan to begin with, it wraps up their TV movie career really well and flicks back to some of their favourite bits of their careers. Great!!!

As far as Olsen movies go, this one is pretty good. It has a plot, and is actually watchable. Mary-Kate and Ashley have always been bad actors, and they haven't improved at all here, and once again they are practically playing themselves, but this is just a straight to video release and in that respect, it's just decent. And whereas most Olsen movies are basically an archive of them having fun, I think there was only ONE Olsens-having-fun moment in here.

To be critical, the acting is crap, the love interests aren't at all cute, and some of the supporting cast are pretty annoying, especially the girl who plays to win. It's a good movie for the Olsens, but it is unfortunately let down by a "twist" ending which is totally crap, ridiculous, and completely big headed on the Olsens part. Fortunatly, this marked the end of the Olsens' run of videos, and thats probably why they set out to try and make it half decent.

To praise the movie, it is watchable, and it's one of the Olsen movies where they don't come across as annoying (at least they aren't annoying, until the, as Mary-Kate called it, "cool surprise"). That cool surprise isn't cool at all. It's pretty big headed.

Ultimately, it's worth a look in.

This movie is amazing! As always, there are love interests and jet skis, but there's something really different about this one. It actually has substance and a plot! The very end really made it for me. This surprise ending was truly inspired, the best these twins have done yet! Keep it up girls!

I loved this movie!! My mom and I watched it tonight and we both thought it was very good... I think Mary-Kate and Ashley are excellent actress' and the movie had a great premise.... It is a scaled down version of the TV show Survivor... It is great to see the twins all grown up for a change!!