Sydney White - Campus Queen

Call me sheltered, I work a lot. I never saw the trailers for this movie nor read the preview. I had to watch it twice before I realized that there was a correlation between it and the Disney classic "Snow White".

That being said, my 9 year old daughter, 18 year old son, and my 40 plus year old wife and I enjoyed this movie very much. The movie has a comedic presentation with a slightly serious undertone. It shows a very basic lesson while keeping it entertaining. The message: "Be Yourself".

I have know idea why the movie is rated as PG-13. The worst vocabulary they use is b***h, and it is along the same lines as The Princess Diaries (In my Opinion). As for sexual undertones ??? I saw more on Shrek 3.

If you are a parent, teenager, or young adult I think you would enjoy this movie (unless you are Grumpy).

In our day and age, it's very difficult to find a truly funny film that is also fairly sweet and innocent. Having grown up as a fairy tale princess wannabe, I've seen my share of fairy tale spin-offs, and this has by far been the best one. I was almost afraid to watch this movie, seeing as it was PG-13 and that doesn't really mean anything anymore (could be clean, like Sydney White, could be completely raunchy). However, I was pleasantly surprised by its clever writing. Some may complain that it is too stereotypical with the cliques, but I would point out that the gorgeous Prince Charming is also a genuinely decent guy, not just Mr. Popularity as in most films. I mean, let's face it: fairy tales were pretty stereotypical to begin with. Evil queens, handsome princes, princesses in danger or in hiding, or regular girls becoming princesses. But that doesn't make it any less of a good story. Overall, I found it highly entertaining and terrifically charming. Truly heartwarming to a fairy tale fan like myself, and even to my dad, who decided to accompany me to the movie because he had nothing better to do--and believe me, it's not easy to entertain my dad with 'chick flicks'.

Predictable, maybe. But who really wants to see the evil witch win in the end?

The movie isn't original. We all have seen many revenge of the nerds/dorks/good guys movies. So you know how it ends before it starts. The bad characters are also so one sided and boring. Nothing special about them, they are just overdone bad.

But I still like the movie. I give it above average rating because I liked all the Snow White references. Mainly the poisoned apple and the seven dwarfs. They make the movie especially funny with their charming characters and personalities. So it is a pretty good movie when one doesn't expect much and just wants a few laughs.

Don't we all wish our lives could be fairy tales??? In this movie, that's exactly what one naive and tomboyish girl named Sydney White gets. To us, it seems like a rather familiar story.

What Amanda Bynes is so good at is delivering clean and funny teen and family comedies. She is a very funny actress, and continues to be respectable by not screwing up her life like most actresses her age. She's cute as Sydney, though her tan was not. It was quite over-done in fact. Besides her the ones who steal the show are, of course, the dorks (aka dwarfs). They are certainly adorable, and we can't help but think that Sydney has found the best possible friends on campus. The downfall in the cast was Sara Paxton as the arch-nemesis Rachel WITCHburn. She just didn't seem quite evil enough for me. Crystal Hunt was also not that great as Sydney southern friend Dinky.

There are some laugh-out-loud moments and one-liners. The most fun part of the movie is catching the fairy tale parts as they come. That and watching the dorks. "Sydney White" is a fine family film and will even work well for teens, and it has a very nice message. However, it never reaches any kind of high point and kind of just seems to go on at a continuous rate. Still, it's worth a watch as a diversion from reality and back into fairy tale world. 6/10 stars!

Jay Addison

I found this simple tale charming and entertaining. It was funny without filth. The cinematography was quite lovely in many spots. It was fun to see John Schneider in a mature role for the first time in a long while. I feel that Amanda is a lovely, talented young girl who did a good job with the role. All the geeks were comical and interesting in their own individual ways. The facial expressions of George were absolutely endearing and evoked hilarious laughter several times. I found myself wanting to bring them all home for a good meal! I especially liked the excellent life-lesson shown for all of our society and wholeheartedly recommend this film for everyone over the age of 12. Younger kids just won't get it nor enjoy it.