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Review: Put vile 'Sleepover' to bed
« on: Jul 9th, 2004, 7:54pm » |
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Review: Put vile 'Sleepover' to bed
Pubescent teens out of their element in awful film
By David Germain
Associated Press
Friday, July 9, 2004 Posted: 9:14 AM EDT (1314 GMT)
(AP) -- Teen girl-power heroines are creeping up on bulbously muscled action heroes as Hollywood's most formulaic protagonists.
The latest girly giggle fest, "Sleepover," probably is no drearier than such other recent irritating gal tales as "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen," "The Lizzie McGuire Movie" and "What a Girl Wants."
Yet "Sleepover" is dreary enough, and the movie objectifies early teenage girls in a manner that's disagreeable and indelicate at best, cheap and vulgar at worst. For a flick whose PG rating should indicate family-friendly fare, "Sleepover" incorporates sexually charged hijinks that will give pause to some parents.
It's one thing for pre-high school children to "borrow" their mom's electric car and cruise around town through the wee hours on an all-night scavenger hunt.
It's another when that scavenger hunt requires a 14-year-old girl to rendezvous at a bar with a grown man dug up on an online dating service so she can get him to buy her a drink. Considering her "date" turns out to be one of her junior-high teachers, "Sleepover" steers disturbingly from wholesome fun to "Lolita" territory.
Alexa Vega, the junior agent from the "Spy Kids" movies, stars as uncool Julie, who's holding a slumber party with three pals (Mika Boorem, Scout Taylor-Compton and Kallie Flynn Childress) to celebrate their last day of junior high.
Their girls' night in turns into a nocturnal quest after rival Staci (Sara Paxton) and her coven of "popular girls" challenge Julie and friends to a scavenger hunt. The winners earn proprietorship of the cool lunch spot next year in high school, while the losers have to eat at the table next to the trash bin (the movie never explains how a gang of freshmen would have a shot at the best lunch place over the upper crust of juniors and seniors).
Besides scoring a drink from a man at a nightclub, the items in the scavenger hunt include a pair of boxer shorts from resident high-school hunk Steve (Sean Faris, who looks as though he's been cloned from Tom Cruise's fingernail pairings, the resemblance is so striking).
Passable performances by Vega and Boorem go to waste in this mealy trifle. The adult cast -- Jeff Garlin and Jane Lynch as Julie's parents, Sam Huntington as her college-age slacker brother, and Steve Carell as an overeager security guard -- largely is stuck in shallow slapstick.
Director Joe Nussbaum trades away the goodwill gained from his clever short film "George Lucas in Love" with this dreadful feature-film debut. The script by Elisa Bell ("Vegas Vacation") is empty and artificial. Real teenagers will not come away recognizing much of themselves in the movie's forced and awkward you-go-girl dialogue.
A movie made by adults about 14-year-old girls, "Sleepover" seemingly is aimed at 8-year-old girls. It's hard to imagine this rubbish resonating with anyone older.
"Sleepover," an MGM release, is rated PG for thematic elements involving teen dating, some sensuality and language.
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