 Figuring that X-2 is likely to draw away all of the male teenage audience, Disney is releasing The Lizzie McGuire Movie to attract the remaining female teenagers, at any rate, those below the age of 15. Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times writes that the movie "celebrates popularity, beauty, great hair, lip gloss and overnight stardom, those universal obsessions of pop teenage culture." (It also celebrates Hillary Duff, the star of the movie, who also stars in the Disney Channel's Lizzie McGuire show.) Clearly, this is not a movie an adult film critic should be reviewing. Chris Kaltenbach in the Baltimore Sun writes, for example, "Not to sound churlish or anything, but how much adorable can one person take?" Jane Horwitz in the Washington Post suggests that it was a tough assignment for her to watch the film. It's fine for girls, she says, "But there's also no reason -- absolutely no reason -- why the rest of us should put ourselves through the agony that is The Lizzie McGuire Movie. Seriously. If your kids are too young to sit unsupervised, get together with other parents and pay an older sibling or sitter to go." Ty Burr of the Boston Globe took his two young daughters to the movie. He gave it 2 1/2 stars. They gave it four. "Now, who are you going to listen to: a professional with a college degree in cinema studies and decades in the field or a bunch of little kids?" he asks. "Right: You're going to listen to the kids." And Eleanor Ringel Gillespie in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has obviously chosen her words carefully for her review, writing that The Lizzie McGuire Movie "is a cute teen movie, starring a cute teen idol, who stars in her own cute teen TV series, which provides the basis for this cute teen movie." |
