Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.
... View MoreAll of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
... View MoreOne of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.
... View MoreThe joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.
... View MoreRead it and Weep is a Fatastic movie, You could totally relate to Jamie and what she is going through in high school.Like having a big crush on the popular guy and wanting to be in the popular crowd, but Jamies life before was still great on having great friends who were unique in there own way, but sweet. First there is Lidsey who is part of the Animals right group, Seacond there is Harmony who is a great artiest, Thirdly there is sweet Connor who is in love with Jamie for a long time,but she does not know this and treats him like a Best friend should be treated.But when Jamie is not looking You could totally see it Connor always looks at her and gives her a cute smile when she looks at him, but her mind is somewhere else because she has a crush on Marco. She falls for him because he wrote a great poam even though Connor really wrote the poam. But she later finds out that it was him . It was romantic when Jamie yelled Connor"s name and she tells him that she is sorry and tells him that she really likes him and takes his hand and he closes his hand over hers and then looks at her and gets closer and then he admitted he liked her and then they shared a tender long kiss with each other. After they kissed they went inside and danced with each other. I would think they are boy friend and girl friend. overall this movie was Great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
... View MoreAfter reading a few messages about the book on IMDb, I knew I had to watch this. Prior to it's airing, I heard of the original title, and later had visions in my head of Danielle Panabaker dressed in a cheap superhero costume, fighting villains in the same manner as Rik Mayall's "People's Poet" from an episode of "The Young Ones," spouting out catchphrases so lame that even Archie comics wouldn't use them. Well, I was a little far from that, but still saw a fairly interesting story.Kay Panabaker plays Jamie Bartlett, a girl struggling to survive the hierarchy of high school social life. She has three best friends, including one boy who has an obvious crush on her. Her father, ex-Even Stevens dad and legendary announcer Tom Virtue, runs a pizza parlor with her mother(Connie Young), and tries to experiment in oddball toppings. Jamie deals with the repressive tyranny of high school life by writing in a personal journal on a tablet computer, using fictional characters loosely based on the people she knows there. When she gets it mixed up with a school article for school and sends it off to be published in a school newspaper, the whole world finds out about it and her life starts to fall apart. Sounds like "Harriet the Spy," you say? Nope. Because unlike Harriet M. Welch, Jamie's private diary has an alter-ego, a semi-super-heroine named "Is," played by Kay's older sister Danielle... or at least that's what she is at first. Besides that, at first most people like her writing including her enemies. The Great Isabella(Is) is sort of like Kim Possible with superpowers. She can do anything -- climb a rope in the gym, stroll through the halls of school zapping it's tormentors into permanent(or at least long-term) detention, get the boy of her dreams with ease, and appear only in front of Jamie. She also evolves from a heroine into a monster. Through Is, Jamie gains fortune and fame, gets her parents' pizza place some more business, gets to hang out with the school snobs who used to torment her, gets the boy of her dreams, and unfortunately nearly loses her friends, then everything else when she inadvertently reveals the inspiration for the villains in her book on a talk show. Who's going to get her out of this mess? Her parents? Her handler? Her protagonist? Her friends? The boy she loves? The boy who loves her? Like Lizzie McGuire's Ashlie Brillault, Jamie's nemesis(Allison Scagliotti) looks much better than Jamie. Even when the trailers were shown, there's no doubting Kay's resemblance to her sister. Beyond that, she wears more make up than her older sister did in "Stuck in the Suburbs." The ending seems somewhat predictable, and unfortunately not believable. I don't think that after a Carrie-style attack on a high school dance, that the kids would be ready to get back into the music. But I suppose if you don't have incidents like these at school functions, they tend to become lame.Some may see this as an excuse to get Danielle and Kay Panabaker to work together on the same project. That's okay by me. I saw Twitches(2005)(TV) as a lame excuse to keep the Mowry Sisters together one last time. Better DCOMs than this have existed, but this one is okay.
... View MoreI thought this movie was great! It was very fun to watch because it's not so normal, no movies are based on writing. I thought it was great how much the main character Jami, (Kay Panabaker who is one of my favorite actresses) changed over the movie. She went from a girl that wants to be someone else to someone that ends up really appreciating her life. Since I'm a teenager I can relate to a lot of the problems in the movie, and I think a lot of the other viewers feel the same. I also liked how Jami's alter ego Is was always telling and trying to convince Jami to do the wrong thing, but at the end Jami wouldn't let Is get inside her head. So overall this was a great movie and I highly recommend it!
... View MoreFor as long as I can remember, I've been addicted to Disney movies whether they were animated or on the Disney Channel. I remember waiting every month for the latest Disney Channel film to premiere and throughly enjoying each new film. Though I cannot pin-point exactly when it started happening but slowly Disney Channel movies began taking a turn for the worst and I stopped watching them as I grew older; no doubt they were still entertaining for little kids but one of the things I always enjoyed (and still do) about Disney is that they masterfully appeal to both children and adults, not to mention those inbetween. The first Disney Channel movie I watched in as long as I can remember was "High School Musical" and my faith in the channel was instantly renewed. But this review is not about "High School Musical", but about Disney's latest film "Read It and Weep," the first Disney Channel film since "HSM" that actually caught my attention."Read It and Weep" follows the (mis)adventures of a high school freshmen, Jamie, who is always on the outside looking in. True, she's got three great friends, a cool but strange older brother and loving parents but Jamie wants something more. She wants the hottest boy in school, Marco, to notice her and wants to be able to stand up against Sawyer and her gang of "Populars" for once. But, seeing as Jamie will never be able to get up the guts to do these things, she creates the character Is to live out these wishes for her. Is (short for Isabelle) is the girl that every other girl wants to be and every guy wants to date; in short, Is is perfect. Not only can Is climb the rope in gym class and get the guy, but she can also "zap" away any problem that gets in her way. Accidentally, Jamie turns in the story of Is to her English teacher and the "novel" ends up being published in the school newspaper because making it all the way to the Bestseller list. Suddenly Jamie (or rather, Is) finds herself sky-rocketing in popularity; Sawyer and the "Populars" actually want to be friends with her and Marcco is starting to look her way. But slowly, things start to get out of control, especially when Is begins to manifest herself as a more permanent part of Jamie's life and prompt Jamie to wonder how much of Is is just a character and how much of Is is in herself. Jamie faces the age-old dilemma of choosing between what she thinks she wants and what made her happy before, leaving a good message for all tweens who watch the film.As an 18-year-old, I found certain things about the film bothersome that wouldn't even enter the mind of the tweens and younger children who watch it, so I know I'm simply nitpicking. The fact that Jamie's novel is so successful in such a short time is highly impossible, though enviable, but the plot is bearable given the fact that it's a light-hearted kid's film and the intended audience wouldn't care too much about all the steps it takes to earning that sort of career and popularity. The story is cute (based upon the pre-teen novel "How my Private Journal Become a Best Seller -sorry if that's not the exact title) and the characters are warm, though Jamie is slightly obnoxious at times. The real winner of the story, however, is Is (played by Danielle Panabaker, Kay's older sister) who doesn't get as much screen time as she should. Panabaker Sr. plays her character with a comfortable ease, no doubt feeding off the fact that she's used to upstanding her younger sis (though Kay has a promising career in front of her in the children's movie set, if I'm not mistaken) and is enjoyable the entire time.For the intended audience, "Read It and Weep" offers a very important lesson: you don't need to be superhuman to be happy and content. Being yourself is just as fine as being like Is. While most children's films will force their messages down the throats of the kids watching, "Read It" manages to work the meaning into the story without making it painfully obvious.As with any children's movie, the story is sub duded, written for a child to understand and enjoy (though this is one of the first Disney Channel films I remember where two of the characters actually kiss; there was only a peck on the check in "HSM." The little romance between Jamie and her background best guy friend was more then enough to keep me interested) but still manages to capture the attention of any age group. Even at the age of 18, I found the movie adorable and entertaining, something I would watch again given the chance.While "Read It and Weep" is no "High School Musical", it is certainly a movie to stand with "HSM" when it comes to turning around the quality of Disney Channel movies. If Disney continues to make films like "Read It and Weep", which smartly appeal to kids, teenagers and older teens like myself, then they were be right back on track with the old films they used to make "back in the day." "Read It and Weep" certainly deserves a viewing, no matter your age and, if nothing else, will leave you with a hint of a smile on your face.
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