High School Musical 3: Senior Year

Sequel to the TV movies "High School Musical" and "High School Musical 2" (neither of which I saw). A bunch of friends are getting ready to graduate from high school. There's Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) the school basketball champ who secretly wants to sing and dance. There's his girlfriend--sweet, squeaky clean Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) who is going to a college that is far away from Troy. Then there's Troy's best bud Chad (Corbin Bleu) who doesn't want high school to end. Then there's the evil Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) who wants Gabriella's part in the school play.

The script is horrendous. I laughed out loud at a few of the dumber lines and was constantly either rolling my eyes or smirking at the plot developments. However, I'm not the target audience for this--I'm a 46 year old guy. I saw it cause I love musicals and this has gotten raves from the critics. It's pretty obvious they're not cheering on the ridiculous plot but the musical numbers. They come out of nowhere but they're full of energy and life. They're also beautifully choreographed and some are really eye-popping. The whole cast can sing and dance and give their all to every single song. "The Boys Are Back" number between Chad and Troy is a true show-stopper. None of these songs will become classics but they're good enough. This is a musical aimed squarely at teenagers and pre-teens. The language is very clean (the G rating should tell you that), all the teens look clean and fresh, all the plots are predictable and family friendly and the whole cast goes at this full blast. This is truly a movie that the whole family can watch. A lot of people are jeering at this movie (notice the poor rating it has) but why? It's just an update of those stupid Beach Party movies of the 1960s. It's no masterpiece musical but it's fun, friendly and full of energy. I give it a 7.