A Cinderella Story

directed by Mark Rosman ("Lizzie McGuire")
written by Leigh Dunlap
 
starring  Hilary Duff (Cheaper By the Dozen), Jennifer Coolidge (Legally Blonde), Chad Michael Murray (Freaky Friday), Dan Byrd (28 Days), Regina King (Daddy Day Care), Julie Gonzalo (Freaky Friday), Paul Rodriguez (Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles)

low expectation:  
      Mark Rosman reunites with Duff in yet another unnecessary retelling of the Cinderella fable.  It isn't so much that remakes are a lame bother.  Even Shakespeare encouraged remakes and retellings, but just as we can do with so many bad versions of Romeo and Juliet (er, Pyramus and Thisbe that is), we can only do with so many Cinderellas let alone any utilizing the anti-cinematic tool of using voice-overs for online chatting.  We can also, for that matter, do with so many cover songs by young popstars likely unfamiliar with the original material.  Featured on the soundtrack:  Hilary and Haylie Duff's "Our Lips are Sealed".  Hmm the song came out on the album Beauty and the Beat in 1981.  The Duffs were born in 1985 (Haylie) and 1987 (Hilary).  Oh well, the kids these days are cuckoo for the 80s!  If I had to cover a song, it'd likely be from 1971. 
      This movie is interesting for the fact that Chad Murray has gone from being Lindsay Lohan's leading boy to Duff's leading boy.  Not as feudworthy as the real-love Aaron Carter incident, just an observation. 

follow-up:
     I wouldn't watch it as a TV movie, which is what it should have been.

website:
ACinderellaStory.WarnerBros.com

synopsis/press release:

        A high school love affair blossoms between downtrodden teenager Sam (Hilary Duff)--who is depressed because of the poor treatment she receives from her mean stop-mom (Jennifer Coolidge) and her witchy step-sisters--and the studly teen football player Austin (Chad Michael Murray), who Sam meets on the Internet.

Expectation Key


there's no possible way we will even see this

we'll eventually see this but we aren't really expecting much

anticipating the release of this one but we're sure to be left unsatisfied

such high expectation of this film only leaves room for disappointment