Takes itself way too seriously

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

I bought this for our 9 year old daughter for Christmas. I wanted a movie that she would LOVE but that would encourage her spiritual walk as well. This was IT. We went on a vacation shortly after Christmas, and I think she watched it about 10 times! She would have watched it more if I would have let her. She can sing all the songs, has a positive attitude after watching it ... and I don't have to feel bad about selling out when HSM is so popular amongst this age group. It looked like it was fairly well put together. Besides, the target audience is pre-teens and teens I would assume ... who are not really movie experts anyway. They just want a fun movie. I highly recommend it.

The DVD cover said High School Musical inspired, blatantly so. I accept that HSM can be inspiration, for me anyhow. The price was relatively low. Play the DVD, I found there to be highs and lows. Low budget films can be okay, but one often has to be able to shrug off flaws in order to experience them as okay. So, most big budget stuff has flaws, too, and these also need to be within limits that the individual can tolerate. This is a musical and the soundtrack construction is where I most notice signs of lack of expertise. When the songs come along the record volume often seems to have been turned up. With my volume control set at a bit lower volume than usual then I can tolerate things. The next flaw is the credibility of the storyline, this is nowhere near the only story that has difficulties with that so one does gradually pick up expertise in being able to get by. One has a limited choice if one hopes for a credible plot? The nice aspect of that, for me, is that it helps HSM to feel more believable. They really do after watching this. So, a low cost DVD inspired in part by HSM and with care I can tolerate the main flaws. Except that this is a Sunday school story. The plot centres around church activities. As an émigré from the churches I find this to be the difficult part. The best songs are very churchy. These days, for me that does get in the way. * Move away from religion, I found it way too easy to need to consider standard stories as text for a secular religion. There were maybe even beliefs in the sixties that centred on that. Paradox. I found that got in the way, how I approached things, but it also seemed like an essential idea. Around 2009, when two missionaries from Utah called at my house I mentioned that I no longer looked to religion, but that I did consider the Salt Lake City manufactured HSM to be Utah religious texts that I could accept. I got the impression that the missionaries considered me to be misunderstanding secular religion. Sunday School Musical (2008) does help me with this. It is clearly religious stuff and considers what used to be understood as basic religious topics. These also relate to the day to day world. Watch HSM soon after and I can now accept them just as rather neat stories. I do not need them to be anything but sugar. The sugar of the frocks, the sugar of the best of Sharpay, whatever. HSM is inspirational if one can accept them as sugar? I should have told the missionaries that Utah professionals have made some very respectable sugar?

Before I set out to watch this movie, I checked out the reviews here and a few users believed this movie was worth every cent they forked out for it. I, on the other hand, after watching the movie, strongly believe otherwise. For most parts, the movie dabbled in some teen angst like moving away from your friends and participating in competitions and so on and so forth. And that was pretty much it. Not to mention the songs sounded particularly like a Boyz II Men karaoke compilation throughout. Their acting was nothing shy of mediocre and I was cringing for most times whenever they aren't breaking out into some dance or song. To be precise, their acting was very forced and amateur-ish. It wasn't very entertaining in other words and if you are already a HSM fan, please do not proceed to ruin your movie experience by watching this.

Sunday SCHOOL MUSICAL Written & Directed By: Rachel Goldenberg. Starring : Candise Lakota Get past the title, And the doors it opened ! This is a very well done musical with no low points like cussing or bad clothes worn by teenagers to sell it to an easy market. The music is very strong, Dance numbers well choreographed. The screenplay and direction were done by a first timer, But couldn't tell by results. Two choirs have challenges and by joining the strengths and weaknesses equal out. A moment by outside characters, That was definitely un-Christian resolves into a happy ending.