Camp Rock (2008)

So I'm a fan of High School Musical right? What of it? So I thought I'd record Camp Rock when it was on BBC1 ages ago and give that a spin. How bad could it be? HSM and the sequel (at this point I'd not seen the third, but I have now... more about that here) are both easy watching, Zac Efron is particularly easy on the eye, and I love a good musical at the best of times. Corny, yes, and very, VERY Disneyfied, but hey, what's wrong with people having a great time and a song and a dance? 

Camp Rock is so bad it makes High School Musical look like an Oscar-worthy musical in the same vein as Chicago. How bad is Camp Rock? Let me count the ways: 
1) The lead actress, Demi Lovato, playing Mitchie, was so achingly smiley and sweet I wanted one of the other characters to punch her. I'm not a violent person. But there's only so much sweetness I can take. Gabriella in HSM treads a fine line between wholesome and irritating, but Mitchie is so far past the line, it's a dot to her. And for a musical where the lead actress is supposed to be hiding a stunning voice I'm afraid Lovato's wasn't up to much.
2) The direction was poor, making what should have been an exciting musical (isn't being exciting a musical's raison d'être??) into a flat and boring thing to endure.
3) The story was dull and predictable - yes you can call HSM predictable too, but this was all  kinds of crap. 
4) All of the songs sounded pretty much the same. I can't remember any of them, although I do remember thinking that the Jonas' sang the best ones.

5) The Jonas Brothers were the best things in it.

 

Here are the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato, notice how she's still bloody smiling? From left to right, after having seen Camp Rock, I can confidentally name the brothers: curly-haired Jonas, lead singer Joe Jonas, and the other Jonas. Joe I can recognise as he's the second lead in the movie - the others are reduced to bit parts. That wouldn't be so bad, but their characters get the best, funniest lines, and they have more chemistry than the rest of the cast put together. I began to yearn for their characters to keep coming back! Joe Jonas was quite good though, in spite of the sullen teenager stereotype he was lumbered with.

Why is the Jonas Brothers being the best things in Camp Rock a bad thing? Well the only other thing I know about them is that they wear rings confirming their chasteness and virginity. That makes me shudder on many levels, and so I didn't want them to be so good!

I will *not* be buying the Camp Rock soundtrack, or watching the inevitable sequel(s). But I will be reflecting on how much better High School Musical is!