Yes, I saw High School Musical 3: Senior Year its opening weekend. (Reminder: I have a ten-year old daughter.) I’m not the target audience (to say the least), but I mildly enjoyed it, particularly Kenny Ortega’s direction/choreography. [What? Have you lost your mind? It gets 2.9 out 10 on IMDB, worse than Showgirls.-ed. What can I say? The last movie I saw was W. I was desperate.] And speaking of W., the Oliver Stone film sank like the proverbial stone. High School Musical 3 out-grossed it by something like 8 to 1 domestically. And that’s not including foreign, which, according to Nikki Finke, made the musical–at 82 million dollars for the weekend– the first American worldwide number one since The Dark Knight. (W. dropped 49.3 percent on its second weekend – disastersville.)
Interestingly, despite the supposed temper of the times, both of these films — Dark Knight and High School Musical – are more conservative in content and theme. Except for the racial mix of its cast, High School could have been made in the Thirties (although probably better then, if directed by Busby Berkeley). The plot is right out of a Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland “let’s put on a show” flick with the requisite prize in the end, in this case a Julliard Scholarship. The cast, now on their third movie, is a bit long in the tooth for high school, but some of them can sing and dance, although, let’s be honest, there are no young Gene Kellys and Fred Astaires in evidence. And definitely no Cyd Charisses. Still, Lucas Grabeel as the junior choreographer looks like a comer.
Lionel Chetwynd and I will be discussing the ins and outs of High School Musical on our next Poliwood — or at least I will. I promised Lionel I wouldn’t make him see movies he didn’t want to see. Maybe we’ll also have to discuss Bresson or Ozu so people will still take us seriously.
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17 Comments
1. marcos leon:You will talk about the two dollars American Carol made.
Oct 26, 2008 - 3:04 pm 2. Mary:Roger, your headline is hilarious. I’ll bet I’m not the only one who wondered why a movie called High School Musical would do a hatchet job on President Bush! Then I read your post. LOL
Oct 26, 2008 - 4:02 pm 3. Zhombre:Yeah, that sucking sound you hear is W joining Body of Lies swirling the box office drain.
Oct 26, 2008 - 4:20 pm 4. Lummox JR:As badly as political screeds have fared at the box office in the last few years, and given the depth of Oliver Stone’s commitment to megalomaniacal suckitude, I’m actually shocked High School Musical 3 is outgrossing it only 8 to 1. By that reckoning, W. has already surpassed my expectations. I guess they’ll still keep letting him make movies, though I’ll sit through HSM3 if it’ll help.
Oct 26, 2008 - 4:20 pm 5. BusyMom:We just got back from a Sunday matinee showing of HSM:3 with our 8 year old son and 5 year old daughter. The kids loved it, and there were kids literally dancing in the aisles of the theater by the time the movie was over. As a mom, I appreciate that someone is still willing to make G-rated movies. The kids in HSM all wear appropriate clothes that cover their bodies. There are no “bad words”, and not even any suggestive content. (The innocent kissing between Troy and Gabriella drew some “Yucks” from the boys in the audience!) The HSM movies also stress the importance of getting an education, and don’t make fun of the smart kids. I know that Hollywood is full of extreme liberals who don’t care about my children, so it is so nice to have a decent movie for the kids now and then. Is the movie a bit silly, with an implausible plot? Of course, but it is supposed to be all in good fun. Our family gives it two thumbs up!
Oct 26, 2008 - 5:04 pm 6. Pat Patterson:Well, that topic for the next Poliwood sounds simply too popular. How can any director be taken seriously for sabotaging his Joan of Arc film by hiring Benjamin Braddock to play a priest? Better would be to discuss American intellectual reaction to the films of Vincent Cassel which surely must merit some sober thought.
Oct 26, 2008 - 5:49 pm 7. NahnCee:Who pays for an Oliver Stone movie? Any chance it’s the same sort of overseas funding sources as are pouring money into Obama’s campaign?
Oct 26, 2008 - 5:53 pm 8. Roger L Simon:Actually, Marcus Leon, we already did. Sorry you missed it.
Oct 26, 2008 - 7:12 pm 9. srlucado:All of this should remind Hollywood that they’re in the entertainment biz, not the preaching biz.
It won’t, of course, but it should.
(And I guess it’s equally true that those in the preaching biz should stay out of the movie biz, as “Fireproof” demonstrates, though I suppose it doesn’t need to gross $100 million to break even.)
Scott
Oct 26, 2008 - 7:36 pm 10. California Dreamer:Hey, Showgirls wasn’t THAT bad! Take away Oliver Stone’s main crutch–his soundtracks– and you are left with….nada.
Oct 26, 2008 - 9:30 pm 11. Paul:Well, W is still going to make a fortune overseas–sad but true. There’s a bottomless appetite for ridiculing anything American out there, especially where Bush is concerned.
Oct 26, 2008 - 10:04 pm 12. gsarcs:We just got back from watching “Appaloosa” and we liked it. One of the people sitting near us got up at end and commented to his wife, “A movie, just like they used to make them.” My wife thought it was a good story and worth the money. It was good entertainment and worth one of our rare forays to the theatre. I’m going to call my brother (lives in another town) and tell him to take my dad to this movie. My dad likes westerns and he’ll like this one.
Oct 26, 2008 - 11:01 pm 13. chris davis:My wife and I teach and we may watch HSM3 just so we will know what the kids are talking about.
THe Dark Knight (Bale, Ledger, Caine) was American? Another humiliation from Anglowood.
Oct 27, 2008 - 10:23 am 14. J:“The cast, now on their third movie, is a bit long in the tooth for high school”
“Really old teenagers from outer space”
Oct 27, 2008 - 1:10 pm 15. Scott:– Crow T. Robot
Roger,how is Maddie doing?…your friends and readers would like to know,I expect
Oct 27, 2008 - 8:13 pm 16. Gaffe Prices:If it has actual songs, and actual singing, and actual dancing, which it does then its worth consideration. Ubridled enthusiasm in a movie, Who knew? Go figure. Any thing worse than showgirls is automatically considered in my book.
Nov 1, 2008 - 1:01 am 17. ronnor:I have heard that “W” was financed by the Chinese Communists. Is there any truth to this?
Nov 1, 2008 - 12:49 pm