Where to start? Oh, God, help me. why don't we make a list? #1: It hasZac Efron (start ringing the sirens) who is one of the, if not theworst actor of all time. #2: It's a made-for-TV sequel movie to anothermade-for-TV movie, and worst of plus, IT'S A SEQUEL TO HIGH SCHOOLMUSICAL!!!!!!!!!! #3: It rips off Caddyshack, and it doesn't even tryto hide it. #4: Ummmmmmmmmmmmm, hello did any one involved with thismovie even, ah I dunno GO TO HIGH SCHOOL!?! #5: They stereotypeeveryone, from the rich even to golfers? #6: The musical numbers, ohgod the musical numbers!
So all and all if you want a good musical, go see Wizard of Oz or Soundof Music. You want your kids to have a taste bud of culture, right?
Well, they managed to steal from "Dirty Dancing", "Grease", "HSM",several Elvis movies, "Beach Blanket Bingo", "Love American Style", andthe Fairly Oddparents movie, "School's Out", for starters. They evenmanaged the 1920's technique of wedging songs into the plot withoutsetting them up properly. They're digging even more deeply intocharacter (I mean caricature) development, especially with the adultsin this travesty. Even worse, the self-congratulatory spots duringcommercial breaks made me long for Clara Peller shouting, "Where's thebeef?". Did they really need to remind us to like them and that show?
Did anyone notice how much Sharpay (still can't believe parents wouldname their daughter after a excessively wrinkled Chinese dog) lookedlike Paris Hilton? Scary...
The technical aspects were really too awful to watch. The lip-syncingwas so bad, I half-expected a Jackie Chan and Jet Li cameo. The songswere worse than last time, and they were vomit-inducing last time. Mywife, who normally rolls her eyes when I get ranting like this, wasagreeing with me most of the time this time around. Ol' papa Walt isTRULY spinning in his grave. Just remember, this is also the parentcompany of the network that brought you "Giapetto, the Musical".
Disney had been hyping this one up for a while. Ever since the firstmediocre installment of this cash cow for Disney took the under 18crowd in America by storm, you knew two things: a.) A sequel wasinevitable and b.) It was going to be hyped up to the point where itcould not live up to it.
The sequel came, and the result was nothing that could even sniff thehype that preceded it.
I won't go into the plot or story, since 95% of the other reviews forthis title will go into that. I will just point out what I didn't like.
First off, the first half of this movie was nothing but purefanservice. It's as if the writers and directors went conservative andthought "What would the fans want" rather than taking a risk and tryingto think "What do WE want?". The playing it safe method that was takenhurt the film in the first half of the movie. The plot line was lookingfor a path to take and couldn't take one. What was this movie trying tobe? That is what I thought the first half of this movie. I had a hardtime paying attention.
Not saying that the second half was much better. It was slightly betterthan the forgettable and boring first half, but not by much. I washoping for some kind of plot twist, misdirection, something to take theplot off the linear, pointed-like-a-laser direction it was in. Butinstead, the ending was predictable. You could have called the endingever since seeing the previews for this movie on Disney a month or twoago. Speaking of the ending, very anticlamatic. A movie that was asforgettable as it was before the ending better have some kind of endingof epic proportions, but the ending was as disappointing as the rest ofthe movie.
Now, I know the point of a musical is the music, and not the plot.Unfortunately for this musical, the music was just as bad as the plot.
The songs were forgettable and rather generic. The music was definitelynot as good as the first installment. And come on choreographers, thedancing was as generic and cookie cutter as it gets. Just about everysong had the same choreography: A "triangle" formation with the movie'smain stars in the front. It got old after a while. You want to be theGrease of the 21st century? Take a page from them: a.) Dancing is notnecessary in every song and b.) Mix up the dancing a bit! Don't makethe choreography the same for every song with minor modifications! Getcreative!
So far this review has been nothing but complaints, but the one shiningpoint of the film: Ashley Tisdale's role as Sharpay. She stole the showand this talent goldmine should be getting some major roles in thefuture. The other acting performances in this movie were aboveaverage(Ryan, Chad, Kelsi), mediocre(Troy, Taylor) and bad(Gabriella),but Sharpay was excellent. The country club manager Mr. Fulton wasexcellent too.
If you are a die hard High School Musical fan, you probably had yourmind set before seeing this that this movie would be OMG AWESOME! Andbecause this movie had a lot of fanservice, it probably lived up toyour ex