A Cinderella Story (Full Screen Edition)
by Mark Rosman
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DVD details
Actor: Chad Michael Murray, Hilary Duff, Jennifer Coolidge, Julie Gonzalo, Regina KingDirector: Mark Rosman
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-10-19
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Model: 31453
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- Meet high school student Sam (Hilary Duff), who scrubs floors at a diner, copes with her wicked stepmother and stepsisters, and all the while dreams of Princeton (the perfect spot for a would-be princess to find a prince). But maybe she has a Prince Charming already: her anonymous e-mail buddy (Chad Michael Murray), who arranges to meet her at the Halloween dance. Sam panics when Mr. Anonymous tur
DVD Reviews of A Cinderella Story (Full Screen Edition)
DVD Review: The worst version of the Cinderella story ever filmed
Summary: 2 Stars
With "A Cinderella Story" I have clearly breached my threshold in terms of the ability to tolerate movies about ugly people in a high school setting. My "ugly" people I mean the self proclaimed most beautiful girl in school with her sycophant sidekicks and the loud-mouthed, obnoxious jocks who treat everybody like dirt. We have seen their likes in countless movies. "Mean Girls" and "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" immediately come to mind, but "A Cinderella Story" sinks even lower in terms of presenting a cast of characters who are worthless human beings who take great joy in being miserable to Samantha Montgomery (Hillary Duff).
Jennifer Coolidge is Fiona, the wicked step-mother in the story, and she is a repulsive figure. She married Sam's father, who died in an earthquake and as much as we want to see him through the adoring eyes of his daughter he must have been really stupid to marry this woman. She is a vulgar gold digger who has reworked every square inch of her body into some trashy notion of glamour that is more sickening than laughable. Not only is she a bully, but she is a stupid bully, along the lines of Richard Nixon (to wit, he never destroyed the tapes that brought him down).
Her daughters, a pair of miss-matched twins named Brianna (Madeline Zima) and Gabriella (Andrea Avery) have inherited their mother's stupid gene. Then there is Shelby (Julie Gonzalo), the head cheerleader who dates the quarterback, orders people out of her way as she walks down the halls of the school, and can turn a pep rally into an excuse to personal humiliate another student because, gosh darn it, somebody wrote the script that way. I am so sick of this character and it dawns on me that in every high school in America the girls who are most like such evil creatures as Shelby are not seeing the similarities because these movie versions are so far over the top.
Now, one of the reasons for having evil, wicked, bad, mean and nasty characters like this in a movie is that they get their comeuppances. But for most of them the verdict has to be too little too late. Living well might be the best revenge, but there is nothing wrong with the idea that the punishment should fit the crime except for the fact that in this movie it does not even come close.
"A Cinderella Story" is based on a fairy tale, which means everybody knows the story, knows the key scenes, and therefore the only question is whether there will be some imaginative reworkings of the key elements involving some notion of creativity. It can be done, as "Ever After" amply proved, but this screenplay by Leigh Dunlap does not really aspire to either imagination or creativity. Instead of a glass slipper we get a cell phone, but if you think that is actually going to go some where in terms of advancing the story line, guess again.
Prior to that point the story is actually more "You've Got Mail" than anything else. Sam and Austin Ames (Chad Michael Murray) have been communicating by e-mail and pager. They both want to go to Princeton and each is smart enough to pick up on the depth of the other (she has straight A's and he wants to be a writer). But Austin is such a wimp that he is dating a girl who is incapable of being sensitive to any other breathing soul and his best friends are jerks. But he bemoans the fact that nobody knows the real him and the fake one running around the school has the looks of Prince Charming but the strength and integrity of Charmin toilet paper. The script requires a redemptive moment from Austin, but it is one that defies belief and speaks to a lack of character, not a manifestation of that desired trait.
Director Mark Rosman's 2004 teen comedy wastes Regina King in the role of Rhonda, who is the closest thing to the fairy godmother (I was waiting for Sam to say, "Help me, Rhonda"). Paul Rodriguez is also wasted in a supporting role. The most engaging character in the movie is Carter (Dan Byrd), Sam's best friend, whose intelligence has to be questioned because he pines for Shelby. This script even thinks that giving him a legitimate shot at her is a good thing, although all it does is give Shelby another chance to be a despicable young woman, in which regard she never disappoints.
The best part of this movie turns out to be the end credits, not only because the movie is over at that point, but it is also when the Duff sisters cover "Our Lips Are Sealed" by the Go-Go's. I am certain her legion of fans will faithfully show up to see "A Cinderella Story," but given the drop-off in receipts they must have all showed up the first week and then word of mouth got out about how dismal this film really is to anyone who has actually made it to high school. You have to wonder if Lindsay Lohan's mom sent this script over to Duff's agent.
However, to be fair I must admit that there was a moment towards the end when I applauded, and not in the spirit of indignant sarcasm. In terms of all the high school students in this film there were three who were decent human beings. At the end of the film two of them end up together (and one of them in not Hillary Duff's character). True, there was absolutely nothing in the film to set up this pairing, but it was a relief to see it none the less. How it got into the script we might never know.
Description of A Cinderella Story (Full Screen Edition)
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