Home Media Magazine - July 13-19, 2008 - (Page 16)

REVIEWS I PICTURE THIS Street 7/22 Fox/MGM, Comedy, $26.98 DVD, NR. Stars Ashley Tisdale, Robbie Amell, Kevin Pollak, Lauren Collins, Shenae Grimes, Cindy Busby. www.homemediamagazine.com from Drew, Mandy conjures up an equal and opposite reaction, all the while convincing her father, through the creative use of her picture phone, that she is at home studying for her economics final. Picture This is a cute, if familiar, little confection that features a couple of appealing performances. Although she’s certainly pretty, Tisdale does a good job of locating her inner geek. Also good is veteran character actor Pollak as Mandy’s overprotective yet clueless father. Tisdale will certainly attract consumers to this made-for-TV movie. But even those teens and tweens who have been living in small eastern European countries and have not seen High School Musical 63 times will enjoy Picture This. – Anne Sherber I f the recent spate of movies that includes Mean Girls and High School Musical is to be believed, girls in high school spend approximately 85% of their time thinking of ways to be mean to other girls who are further down the social food chain and the other 15% of the time acting on their worst impulses. In Picture This, Tisdale plays Mandy, a high-school senior who, like virtually every other girl in school, has a crush on the dreamy Drew (Amell). When she lands a date with the “It” boy, she thinks she’s died and gone to social heaven. That is, until, through the elaborate machinations of Drew’s ex-girlfriend, her father grounds her. But for every one of the mean girl’s increasingly diabolical attempts to keep Mandy away I BRA BOYS Prebook 7/15; Street 8/12 WEA/VAS, Documentary, B.O. $0.1 million, $19.95 DVD, ‘R’ for language, some violent content and reckless behavior. Narrated by Russell Crowe. M I STEP UP 2 THE STREETS Street 7/15 Disney/Touchstone, Drama, B.O. $58 million, $29.99 DVD, $34.99 Blu-ray, ‘PG-13’ for language, some suggestive material and brief violence. Stars Briana Evigan, Robert Hoffman, Adam G. Sevani, Cassie Ventura, Telisha Shaw, Will Kemp. A rebellious street dancer is given a chance to attend the prestigious Maryland School of the Arts. But she finds it difficult to fit into her new life while maintaining ties to her street roots. When her street dance crew rejects her, she assembles an eclectic band of her new classmates to compete against her old friends in an underground dance battle. Step Up 2 has no pretensions. The plot, which stretches the concept of “sequel” to the breaking point, is virtually unrelated to the original film except in its right-side-of-the-tracks, wrong-sideof-the-tracks love story. There is a requisite evil authority figure who tries to squelch youthful exuberance and creativity. And there is a troubled home life that must be overcome through the transcendence of dance. But ultimately the storyline is little more than a way to get from one dance sequence to another. And, actually, that’s a good thing because the dancing is spectacular. Also great is a soundtrack that includes songs by Missy Elliott, Flo Rida, Scarface and KC. Although Evigan doesn’t really project “street” (her Andie has a liberal sprinkling of preppie mixed in with her gangsta), she is very likable and attractive. Hoffman, as Chase, a big man on the art-school campus, is clean cut but has serious chops when it comes to street dance. And Sevani is charming as the school’s techie geek who has hidden talents. Step Up 2 is really a one-trick pony — a series of dance performances disguised as a movie. But when the dancing is this good, and features such draw-dropping tricks, viewers who are interested in dance will really enjoy it. – Anne Sherber aroubra, a seaside suburb of Sydney, Australia, appears like it was built for failure. Home to a prison and a sewage plant, Maroubra has a history of poverty and hard times. Out of these circumstances came the Bra Boys, a “surf tribe” featuring a group of hard living, hard charging men with an unbreakable bond. Director-writer Sunny Abberton, a longtime surfer, is a key member. Through interviews and home videos, Abberton details the Bra Boys’ formation and its stormy, controversial history, which culminated with his brothers Jai and Koby (a talented pro) facing lengthy prison sentences for their alleged roles in a murder. Abberton’s movie is a loving tribute to the men who became his surrogate family. That appreciation is almost dwarfed by Abberton’s feeble attempt to pass his love letter off as a news report. With narration from Russell Crowe and interviews with open-minded journalists and defense attorneys, there are a lot of somber trappings and pro-Bra Boys sentiment, but no counterpoint. Where’s the district attorney or retired cop explaining why the authorities hated the surfers, or the local historian explaining the culture of fear the Bra Boys inspired? The line of credibility is shattered when Abberton appears as an interview subject in his own documentary. The movie works best when Abberton lets the surfers express themselves, either through words (how they’ve become mentors to a new generation) or actions (Koby’s hedonistic, defiant quest to surf the world’s best waves as his trial continues). If Abberton had been less concerned with generating good PR, Bra Boys could have been a classic look at male bonding. Instead, it’s just a distraction for surfing enthusiasts and a second-rate history lesson. – Pete Croatto 16 Home Media Magazine July 13–19, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com

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Home Media Magazine - July 13-19, 2008

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