Le grand soir

So I'm sure a lot of people saw this from the trailer, but Prom is a classic Disney spin on a very big moment in a teenager's life. Yes this movie is a preteen/early teen's dream about the life and drama involved in asking someone out for prom and the plans that go in it.

To star off on this review Prom centers on about five different scenarios all wrapped up into one movie. The scenarios are a romance story between the class president and a ruffian, another love story between a dweeb and a beautiful sophomore, a small side story about a guy trying to get someone to come to a prom, another story of deceit and betrayal, and finally a story about an ideal relationship hitting a rocky course. I know sounds like a soap opera doesn't it, and in fact I would call this movie a teenage soap opera. The story lines in my opinion were predictable, very linear, and felt similar to a plot found in most Glee episodes. The dialog in this movie was not strong enough to keep the story interesting as well, as it was more juvenile and not really deep. However, from the trailers this is what I was expecting would be the case and thus am not too shocked by it.

Despite the poor main story line and the intense drama from others I enjoyed the brief interludes present throughout the movie that involved the unknown loser Lloyd and his quest to ask a girl out. These funny, although weak, scenes gave the film a little more pace and took away from the drawn out drama. The other story was the sophomore geek Lucas and his quest to impress the lovely Simone while ditching his best friend. This story was also weak and predictable, but the acting was done well enough that I was dragged into feeling sorry for him. In fact I could even see some qualities of myself in Lucas, which is probably why I was interested in this story.

So what else is there to say about this movie? Well the acting is not bad, and although young, these actors are already showing potential for being good actors. However, most audience members may be caught up in the dramatic actions these teens do in the movie. However, I believe the teenage girls will be focused more on the sulky, pouty, and rebel nature of the main dude and will be making various sounds that represent their attraction to the man. At least that was what I saw when I saw this movie. Another thing is that the soundtrack is very mainstream radio with songs from All Star Weekend, Taio Cruz, and yes even Katy Perry being played throughout the movie. It adds zest to the film and makes one feel like they are in prom, but if you're not a fan of mainstream radio then you will not enjoy it. The camera work is nice too, and the setting does actually feel like a high school setting so that's another thing I find positive. However this movie was also like being in high school musical, except get rid of the singing and dancing and instead replace it with Twilight qualities.

To wrap this up, Prom is a movie that will make teenage girls go gaga and laugh at almost every scene. If they are not laughing, then there is a good chance that they will be swooning over the guy leads in this movie or awing at the cuteness this movie does have. As I have mentioned before the dialog is weak, the story is predictable, and the pace can be a little slow and boring at times. However, it is a cute, high school soap opera that will entertain those that like to see happy endings and smiles. This is also a movie that could be good for a date as well. Regardless looking at this movie for what it is I will give it a 7, but that's being a little generous. Until then enjoy and please email me if you have any ideas to improve my writing at rgkarim@mail.roanoke.edu

...but that isn't saying much. Prom tells the story of a bunch of teenagers who all want to go to prom. Their troubles with getting dates, fixing destroyed decorations, and a bunch of other high school drama stuff that is neither interesting nor realistic. I understand Prom is geared towards the TWEEN crowd and I'm sure those tween girls will love this movie.

The cast is full of a bunch of no name kids, first time actors. This was done on purpose to get the innocence of young kids caught on film. The director wanted it to feel real. Big mistake because a lot of these kids can't act. It doesn't come off as real, instead it feels forced and unnatural. This is the film biggest flaw, these kids aren't believable in their roles. The only one who manages to be interesting is Nicholas Braun, who does have some acting in his background. He was also in Kevin Smith's ambitious if flawed Red State. His story about trying to get a girl to go to prom with him and failing each time is the only funny bits and it's due to the performance he manages to give. He has good comedic timing and should have some sort of career after this. The rest of the cast I'm not so sure about.

There main story here is that of a young girl who has a bright future ahead of her. She is also the prom committee organizer and when two teens accidentally burn down all the decorations, she is partnered up with the resident 'bad boy' to get them all back in working order. If he doesn't help, he won't graduate. So these two polar opposite kids have to put their differences aside and work together to get everything done for prom. Hmmm, might they discover that their preconceived notions of one another were wrong and they start to like each other? No way, right? That would be too obvious and clichéd. But of course it goes down that road. It's a shame that the two actors didn't have any chemistry with each other.

The second character story I had a problem with involved a young guy trying to be on the lacrosse team. He's a freshman and he manages to become friendly with a really cute girl. Tyler, team captain, soon to be prom king and all around popular guy sees the cute girl with the freshman and decides to use him to get to her. The problem is, he's with another girl and they are going to prom together. The cute girl decides to be friendly with the freshman, despite wanting to be with the popular one. This is all fine and dandy, until the soon to be prom queen discovers that he wants to be with this cute girl and hearts are broken. Cute girl decides to ditch freshman to be with soon to be prom king and go to prom. She finds out that soon to be prom queen dumped him because he found out about her, but he told her that he dumped soon to be prom queen so he can be with her. She feels cheated and goes back to the freshman. Confused?

The problem I have with that is that she does to him pretty much what soon to be prom king did to her. He only goes to be with her because his prior relationship didn't work out. So he's the scumbag. Yet, she only goes to be with the freshman because her relationship with him didn't work out. How are we suppose to be okay with this? Mixed messages here.

The script, direction and even cinematography are all bare minimum. Nothing interesting ever happens on the screen, or in the script. It's as if they were on autopilot during the production of the film. Putting a camera on and making people do stuff in front of it is not exciting, nor is it good, in my opinion. Having interesting, complex characters in situations they have to overcome is. This is why Prom did not work for me and will most likely work for the tween target audience. They will find the film cute, the boys cute and the music good enough to dance to. This was not the type of Highschool I went to. If I want a film that helps me discover who I am at that age, I watch John 'fricken' Hughes my friend, not a cheaply made Disney flick.

It puzzles me as to the low rating for this film. Although painfully innocent, rude or even subtly rude gags completely left out, and remarkably cliché (almost all moments were predicted by people in the room while watching), PROM is a light-hearted, humorous and generally nice tale of the most important moment to teenagers about to leave school.

Most enjoyable was the acting of Lloyd, played by Nicholas Braun, and just how believable and funny the small story lines for him were. Perhaps the less cliché moments of the film were enjoyed by his character.

Overall, a nice, sweet film that would be most enjoyable to people around the age of the characters in the film.

I would say this movie is probably for 14 year old and up. I'm 12 and I thought it was just a bit too much kissing, I really wouldn't even call it a Disney movie! I think lemonade mouth is one of the best (not animated) movies, I like how its not completely about couples and stuff its about enjoying life, having fun, and to chase your dreams :D And I have never seen someone get punched in a Disney movie, most of the Disney movies I have seen there had only been minor violence, not someone being punched.... I also just loved the movies and shows they used to do like Hannah Montana, wizards of Waverly place and that's so raven. and even the ones like lion king, and all the princess movies. They should make movies that kids can watch at the ages through 5-13 that don't always have kissing and couples in them! And I like movies like lemonade mouth and lion king and tangled because its not all about teens. and whats the point in having a movie with a bunch of soon to be college kids when seventeen year old aren't even bothered about watching movies like prom! And I rarely watch movies like prom but I had nothing left to watch so I decided to try and watch it, BAD CHOICE.

I knew the second I watched the trailer that it wouldn't be a good movie. The quality, acting, and characters were all kinds of bad. But it was still cute and funny, and it had a happy ending. It was certainly enticing enough. It made me flip off a couple of characters for being sucky, so it can definitely keep your attention. Plus, the main guy Jesse was reeallllllllyyyyyyyyyyy cute. He was pretty much the main reason I watched. He reminded me of Flynn Rider. Anyways, this movie is good for curing boredom. If you like teen acting and happy-ending storylines, enjoy. It's a good pick-me-up.