Really Surprised!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

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 love watching musicals, especially my all-time favorite "Grease", but when it comes to the Disney Channel-type musicals like the "High School Musical" saga, cheesy and forgivable is in my library. This comes in handy with the MTV musical treasure, "The American Mall" which is not a Disney Channel-type of musical. The plot involves Ally (Nina Dobrev from Degrassi: The Next Generation and The Vampire Diaries) who is a singer/songwriter who is (a) trying to fit in with her music career, (b) trying to get into a musical symposium and (c) stuck with her mother while working in a music shop. That all changes when the handsome janitor/musician named Joey (Rob Mayes) hears one of her songs and is amazed by the songs she writes. Ally and Joey do have eyes for each other and they do fall in love but love is so not a sales item when the bitchy Madison (Autumn Reeser) interruptly snatches Joey from Ally and turns him into a sensation for Madison's new store. Director Shawn Ku and telewriter Margaret Oberman takes some time with the clichés, but the musical numbers and the cast sometimes hits it home. They don't exactly standout when it comes to 20somethings playing teenagers but mostly, I didn't care. Add some funny janitors, some wacky assistants, an token Asian-American guy who is funny for anything and the result is a cheesy but likable and charismatic treasure that is worth checking out to the pre-teens and teenagers. P.S: Good performances from Dobrev and Mayes as the two leads.

I wasn't expecting too much from this movie, but I was pleasantly surprised. The characters were better than I thought and so were the songs. I only wish the janitors at my local mall were as cute as the janitors in this movie.Before you watch this movie though you have to think about who's producing it and what audience it's targeted towards. Don't expect deep Golden Globe award winning stuff. It's fun and full of music. I will say the actors are a bit more believable than the actors in High School Musical (and that's saying a lot cause I really like High School Musical). There's a lot more silly comedy in this one too (which I really enjoy) and it's targeted toward a slightly older audience than HSM (more toward older high school students than middle school students).All in all it's definitely worth a watch. Give it a chance. If you like it than good for you if you don't then you probably tried to take this movie too seriously...

Saw it on MTV earlier, and, although it is from the executive producers of High School Musical, this movie is geared more to the high school crowd than High School Musical is. So, The American Mall is not nearly as childish as High School Musical, making it a better movie all together.The relationship between Ally and Joey was very similar to High School Musical, (the two people sing together, don't know each other, and then meet up again, only to break up shortly there-after, and get back together at the end.) Although, the relationship between Ally and Joey is exactly the same as the relation ship between Troy and Gabrielle, in High School Musical, there is more emotionally depth with the actors/actresses, making it a better experience.It was a great movie, well worth the time and I would recommend watching it soon.

It is no High School Musical, don't let the connection fool you! This movie is so bad! It was one of the most contrived things I had seen in a really really long time and I just watched Troll 2. I seriously doubt that most of the people in this sang for themselves and there were times when the lip-sinking was really off. I had hopes for a semi-enjoyable experience and am really upset with how let down I was. I at least expected good dancing but no. On top of it all they even tried blaming the victim a couple of times amidst all the mainly unintelligible story line and signing. MTV is in big trouble with me for making this movie and trying to give some of these messages to kids. There were times all I could think was "what are you doing". Is that the image and message we want to send to our young girls! Really MTV bad job, you have sunk to a new low. I apologize for my rant but I hope it stops others from watching this and letting any young girls in there house from watching it.