A Nova Cinderela

I thought this movie was a funny and a romantic chick flick. Hilary Duff is one of my favorite actresses and she plays a perfect Sam in this movie. This movie is pretty predictable but still fun to watch. If your bored one day go to the video store and check this movie out. It is very interesting to watch from beginning to end. Chad Micheal Murray is a great Austin for this movie and has what it takes.I never get sick of watching this movie.Every character in this movie was the right pick.I'm so glad Hilary played Sam instead of somebody else.If you are not interested in this movie, at least give it a chance! From a scale 1-10 i give this movie a 8. Two thumbs up!

I did fear that I would hate A Cinderella Story. I honestly it would be predictable and contrived, problems I have had with some of the Mary Kate and Ashley movies. Actually, while by no means perfect, but as an update of the fairytale this exceeded my expectations. I have heard and read complaints that the film is very unoriginal. I don't think it is. While I like films to be original, I don't like it being too original. The film does follow the skeletal premise of the timeless fairytale, that I grew up reading, as well as loving the Disney film and Ever After with Drew Barrymore and Anjelica Huston.

A Cinderella Story does have its flaws. There are a lot of over-familiar elements in the script, and the plot falls into the oft-danger of being predictable. There are one or two pacing problems and the odd clichéd character, and while there are some mildly funny moments with the stepsisters especially(ie. the scene in the swimming pool) there is nothing uproariously funny. I liked the idea of the two lead characters being internet pals, somewhat reminded me of You've Got Mail.

On the plus side, there are some things I really did like about this film. While they had some in general superficial material to work with, the entire acting ensemble did more than adequately. Hilary Duff does a good job in the lead as Sam, she is definitely not the best actress ever, far from it, but she is better than Miley Cyrus. Plus I thought she looks lovely here. While he looks like 5 years older, Chad Michael Murray is an appealing love interest. And Jennifer Coolidge makes the most out of the role of the wicked stepmother here. The camera work is decent, and the sets are colourful. And I have to mention Sam's dress, it was gorgeous! The film's finish is satisfying too, and the soundtrack is cool.

Overall, one may dismiss this film as a silly piece of predictable fluff. While it is definitely not perfect, it is watchable, and good undemanding fun for teenagers. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Your perfect family film. Has your normal crushes and such. Lots of self confidence, and showing how much you need your friends. That timeless, and useful quote, "never let the fear of striking out, keep you from playing the game"...after I saw that movie, and heard that line, i changed my lifestyle of leaving everything, calm , boring, and not the way i wanted it. I was afraid that I wouldn't be accepted if i didn't do a certain thing, or if I did a certain thing. I was wrong, and this movie, strange as it may sound, gave me the nerve to do some things I never would have done on my own. Definitely something to see if your feeling left out, or need something that will show you, that dreams can come true.

I haven't looked at other reviews of A Cinderella Story yet, but especially because it's a Hilary Duff film, I'd expect there to be a lot of scathing comments. That's because Hilary Duff is, or was, at least, popular with tweens and teens, and lots of slightly older folks have a tendency to hate commercial or popular stuff just because it's commercial or popular. Of course, they find other ways to justify their effectively institutional hatred of this stuff, and I'd guess that the main complaint would be the clichéd and predictable nature of the material here.

And that's true. A Cinderella Story is clichéd and predictable, but that's not a great reason to dislike it. It is a Cinderella story, after all--it tells you right there in the title--retooled as a contemporary Los Angeles-area high school romance-comedy. We all know the Cinderella story fairly well. And any film fan at least old enough to almost be through with high school is surely familiar with the clichés of rom-coms and high school films. Most of us could write the basics of A Cinderella Story's plot without even seeing the film's trailer. So for adults, at least, A Cinderella Story is going to be successful or not dependent on how well it hikes its well-trodden path.

For me, the best material was the more traditional Cinderella-based stuff. Jennifer Coolidge (voluptuously) fills the role of the wicked stepmother. I like Coolidge a lot. She has tremendous charisma and performs her infamous, quirky sarcastic act here with verve. I also like Duff. The two actresses playing Duff's stepsisters were new to me, but just as charismatic as Coolidge. Director Mark Rosman quotes some of the cartoonish visual gags of Disney's Cinderella (1950) more than I expected, and it works amazingly well. It's one element that pushes the film into a welcomed, absurd-surreal territory.

What didn't work as well for me was the material when Rosman and credited writer Leigh Dunlap forgot about doing a pumped up remake of Cinderella. Too much of A Cinderella Story deals with Sam's (Duff) budding cyber-romance, her typical high school problems and the caricatured, stereotypical high school cliques. It's not that these other segments are bad, exactly, but they just don't have the spark or humor that the Cinderella material has, and especially for something like the cliques, we've seen this tens of times before. These scenes would be right at home if we edited them into any of those other films or television shows--sometimes I had to remind myself that I wasn't watching, say, a Cordelia scene from the first season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997).

So A Cinderella Story has a bit of a split personality--as a funny and wacky remake of Cinderella and as a far less humorous, pretty generic "getting through adolescence and finding yourself" message film. That After-School-Special-styled message may be a worthy one, but intercut with a great version of Cinderella, it doesn't quite fit, even though Rosman does finally start to find a unique and admirable groove while still alternating modes towards the end of the film.

Despite a wildly corny and simple story line and writing combined with poor acting, this movie still somehow works. It's entertaining and is a feel good movie overall. It's still very poorly done but oh well.