Prom: Movie Review

Disney-ifying of prom for an immature but sweet re-hash of predictability.

"Prom" is the Disney version of prom for teenagers. Or make that 17 year-olds acting like 12 year-olds (but of course acted by 20 year-olds). It's immature because it fails to bring in any humour, reality, or surprises that people of any age could enjoy. The plot is like every other adolescent romantic comedy. High-schoolers are getting ready for prom, led by the over-achieving, blonde, class president, but who is being opposed by the local rebel.		2011 Directed by: Joe Nussbaum Screenplay by: Katie Wech Starring: Aimee Teegarden and Thomas McDonell
The rebel is the leather jacket-wearing, too-cool-for-school, dark and handsome type with long hair. There are many examples of movies with this character, but the one that comes to my mind is "Cry-Baby" (1990), the Johnny Depp starrer. Thomas McDonell is a Johnny Depp look-a-like, as in, looks exactly like him. And at least in comparison of their two identical movies, he even acts like him too. McDonell could very well become the Johnny Depp of the next generation. Next year, he will play him in the up-coming "Dark Shadows" (2012) where Depp is the vampire Barnabas Collins and McDonell is the "young Barnabas Collins." Instead of writing in additional plot lines (i.e. more than just getting ready for prom), we got additional characters (all of them getting ready for prom). There were way more than I could possibly care about. The movie probably would have been better spent turning the "main" characters into more endearing people. None were unlikable, they were just fairly bland, and a lot had difficulty delivering the cheesy lines. "Prom" is at least predictable on purpose. Nobody is supposed to be caught off-guard, and we're just supposed to naturally fall for the sweetness of the overly simplified teenage relationships on screen. It is sweet and good-natured, but despite all the characters' insistence for perfection, "Prom" is far from perfect.