STARSTRUCK (2010)
Starring Sterling Knight, Danielle Campbell, Maggie Castle, Brandon Mychal Smith, Chelsea Staub, Beth Littleford, Dan O'Connor, Lauren Bowles, Ron Pearson, Matt Winston, Toni Trucks, Alice Hirson, Abbie Cobb, Hugh Dane, Sunkrish Bala and Harry Perry.
Screenplay by Barbara Johns and Annie DeYoung.
Directed by Michael Grossman.
Distributed by Walt Disney Home Video. 85 minutes. Rated G.
True love runs a little differently on the Disney Channel.
If you are a cute, kinda moody, no-nonsense, misunderstood teen, then you too can find true like with a gorgeous, sensitive but artistically frustrated pop star. It will be a case of hate at first sight, but soon you will come to respect and care for each other, and both will suddenly notice with a start that the other one is hella cute. And despite the roadblocks thrown up by fame, fans, paparazzi and managers, true love will triumph because you understand and respect the real person, not merely the huge star.
No, StarStruck isn’t Hannah Montana: The Movie, Camp Rock or any other of several made-for-cable tween romances with a similar plot. It just kind of feels like them.
It’s not even necessarily a bad movie (though it is also not necessarily a good one). It just feels like we’ve seen this story before.
But it’s a familiar story told fairly well.
True, StarStruck is very much a movie for a very specific demographic. For example, males over the age of 25 will probably have little great need to see it. But, to quote the immortal Willie Dixon, a legendary bluesman that the pop-rock superstar in this movie has probably never even heard of, “The men don’t know, but the little girls understand.”
That misunderstood-but-oh-so-dreamy pop star is Christopher Wilde, played Sterling Knight of Disney Channel’s series Sonny With a Chance. (Disney likes cross-pollinating its franchises.) He’s barely 20 but has become a huge singing star, dealing with sycophantic friends and parents, a gold-digging girlfriend, a constant barrage from the media and the loss of the ability to be just a normal kid.
The normal kid is Jessica – or at least as close to normal as kids get on the Disney Channel. Played by Danielle Campbell, she is gorgeous, but not in an in-your-face way. She is just a natural and unassuming beauty. She’s also moody and just occasionally a little bitchy, but that’s just because no one in her Michigan hometown understands her. And… (Irony alert!) Jessica’s annoying older sister is Christopher Wilde’s BIGGEST FAN, but Jess can’t be bothered with the self-absorbed Hollywood kid.
I think we see a love match coming down the road here.
Of course, the family goes on vacation in Hollywood to see their fun and sassy granny. Of course, older sis plans on stalking her idol for the entire trip. Of course, the singer will meet the wrong sister… or the right one.
First, they have to meet cute (he is sneaking out the back door of a party to get away from photographers and bops her on the head with a door!). Then they fight cute (she wants to go home but he has to go to an important party). Next, they make up cute (having a fun day seeing LA landmarks like Hollywood Blvd and the Malibu Hills). Finally, they have a bonding moment (they mistakenly drive her grandmother’s vintage 1970s AMC Pacer in a desert stretch of quicksand. Umm, this is still Malibu, right?).
This leads to the requisite complications – can the singer put his love for her over his career momentum?
It’s a Disney Channel movie; do you really have to ask?
You’re not looking for anything tragic or too ambiguous from a movie like StarStruck. You are just looking for cute boys, cute girls, cute scenery, chipper pop music (in a nice touch, Disney has packaged the soundtrack album in the DVD packaging) and true love conquering all.
StarStruck works just fine as a starter-romantic comedy for tween-age girls. That is all that the film ever wanted to do.
Dave Strohler
Copyright ©2010 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: June 1, 2010.
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