Camp Rock (Musical Hell Review # 130)

It's like High School Musical, only, y'know, with summer camp.

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[LaFemmeFictionale]

Meanwhile across the lake, the theatre camp kids are all getting murdered over an Andrew Lloyd Webber knockoff and mommy issues.

[jbcatz]

Mitchie would be a lot more popular if she admitted she was the caterer’s daughter. Screw music biz connections, extra food would earn literal brownie points. Lying to ingratiate herself is there to create conflict through an eventual liar revealed cliche, when the script could have leaned into the juxtaposition between Mitchie and Tess’s mothers, envy for the relationship Mitchie and Connie have being Tess’s motive to work against Mitchie.

[ryandowney]

9:54 "Dry unflavored noodles" is a perfect description of all these characters.

[joshraid]

You know what I don't get? The DCOM lemonade mouth had a character sing a pop punk number about breaking free from her insecurities, specifically in relation to a toxic boyfriend who held her down. Compared to the generic DCOM pop in the other movies, you could have kind of sold a song like this as the kind of personal and experimental music they don't want. It's the kind of thing that the real Jonas brothers would probably not perform.

They could have made Shane like a male Avril Lavigne with a manager that wants him to be Harry Styles.

Why didn't they do that? It's called camp rock, why do none of these characters rock?

[Eviltwin]

I swear, if I find out their breakfast was a daily toast/bagel/crumpet bar with a wide variety of preserved fruits they call the Jam Jam, I think I'll put my head through the wall.

[afterdinnercreations]

It'd have been crazy if Demi's character started belting out "Rebel Girl" by Bikini Kill.
Like, this is about as "rock" as gummi life-savers. Hoobastank rocked harder than this.

Picture it. Take this same exact premise, "Aspiring rock-singer attends a big camp dedicated to the form, " but comes to discover it's a gigantic vanity-project for a bunch of rich-parents who want their kids to be cookie-cutter pop-stars. Most of the curriculum is dedicated to singing and dancing, but almost to no instrument-training.
The lead being the only one from humbler beginnings because her parents work as caterers/cooks. She keeps her head down and studies their techniques to create pop-melodies but throws a monkey-wrench into the camp-system by singing a loud & abrasive punk-number, but the pop-hooks she studied makes it extremely catchy and fun to at least dance/headbang. Something like "Seventeen" from Repo: The Genetic Opera or Rebel Girl by Bikini Kill. Shane is brought back to his rock-roots from this number, but the rowdy-crowd makes it hard for him to identify the singer. This inspires the rest of the student-body to try this new form, but upsets the parents who aren't paying for their kids to be rowdy rockers, so they start threatening to pull their kids and the funding.

Or... is this just School of Rock.

[harrietamidala]

"It's not exactly Daft Punk, although she certainly has got the first part down." Oh, that shade made me laugh hard.

[CAMarino]

Fun fact: the director of Camp Rock also directed The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure….I wish I was making that up

[Stequal]

Alyson Stoner was too good for this film. And "She's really good!" will never get old.

[ryandowney]

Shouldn't the fact that none of these songs in Camp Rock are, you know, actually ROCK AND ROLL count as a sin against this movie?!

[Jarakin]

8:15 that always did bug me even as a kid. My own food allergies aren't dangerous but they'll still easily ruin my day.

If I was him the only thing someone demanding a please from me in that situation would get is a decision that yeah, I'm definitely going to get someone fired today instead of just complaining because they obviously don't care nearly enough about having just poisoned me.

[MrBookworm]

9:44 So basically, Caitlyn is a Disney-fied version of Janis Ian. Also, not sure why the movie acts like Caitlyn getting punished for the food fight is unfair when she in fact DID start the whole thing.
Great review as always, and I'm very happy to know that Zombies 3 WILL be getting its day in court before Musical Hell shuts its doors <3

[nathanforester]

The music instructor is Julie Brown, the same Julie Brown who sings 'Homecoming Queen's Got A Gun' and also wrote and starred in 'Earth Girls Are Easy' (the sci fi musical comedy with Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis and a young Jim Carrey), and also the voice of Minerva Mink. Also worth mentioning she is one of the girls in 'A Goofy Movie'.

[americaroleplayer]

I do appreciate, that this was one of the first movies I saw that shown a light on 2 very important issues. 1; a main character who's lack of money actually poses a societal problem (a lot of movies like to just pass over that for some reason) and 2; negligent parenting as a form of abusive parenting. Sure both of these things are pretty background issues, but they're better than nothing.

[karrihart]

You're right Camp Rock; I should be watching Wet Hot American Summer, The Parent Trap, or Fame.

And after watching the Barbie movie, I will never take the "guy plays guitar for girl" trope seriously ever again.

[cutiepuppy]

I used to be so upset (and I still am partially) that the Camp Rock stage show took more of the music and plot from the sequel than the first movie, but now I know why. Given the point that a solid percent of the songs in 1 don't do much to advance the plot.

[fordandk]

10:38 I love how Shane's voice is clearly double-tracked while he's playing a solo acoustic song live. For a movie all about music, this film doesn't seem to know how music works.

[TheJFish]

If I remember correctly, I think Brenda Song (from The Suite Life series and The Social Network) has a cameo I think at 13:38, Michie's mom in the film is also played by the mom from Wizards of Waverly Place, this movie basically rocketed both Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers two superstardom, and the epilogue that takes place three months later wasn't originally in the film when it aired on Disney Channel, but it was added for the films DVD release, much like High School Musical 2 has an extra scene added for the DVD release.

[tsifirakiehl]

Okay, am I the only one who’s creeped out by Shane becoming romantically involved with Mitchie? He’s a counselor and she’s a student, which puts him in a position of authority over her, creating a power imbalance in their relationship. Also, how old are these characters supposed to be? Mitchie seems about thirteen or fourteen, and Shane’s implied to be about three years older than her. A three year age difference isn’t a big deal between adults, but there’s a pretty big developmental gap between a thirteen-year-old and a sixteen-year-old.

[TheKpa]

Jesse McCartney’s Roxas/Ventus as the exception to “Singers acting”