I don't know anything about Selena Gomez except that I think she sings and does stuff on the Disney Channel "¦ just like Hilary Duff. She's now starring in Monte Carlo, a movie about a young girl who goes on a graduation trip and runs into someone famous who looks just like her. Silly antics ensue, she falls in love, then briefly screws it all up, then falls in love again "¦ just like The Lizzie McGuire Movie.
This is unashamedly a Selena Gomez vehicle, so keep that in mind. It's a movie intended to thrust Selena farther into the limelight in order to secure more rights for movies, albums (...that's probably too strong a word...), cups, shirts, etc. With all that being said, Monte Carlo is a surprisingly charming little film. It's not going to win any awards, nor should it, and it's largely going to be eaten alive by the critics but there's something exciting about watching a movie with young, excited talent in it that brings a smile to my face. I found the jokes from this film landing better with the audience than the puerile humor of Transformers, and the truth is that it's not the writing that's making us laugh, it's the delivery, the performances.
Don't get me wrong: this isn't a good movie. Everyone's acting is pretty wooden, the writing is riddled with cliché after cliché, and it plays out exactly like you think it will. It's as predictable as any other Disney Channel movie you're gonna see. But Gomez truly isn't awful. In fact, when she's playing her primary role (not the uppity English princess, which she butchers), she's not half-bad. Gomez and Cassidy are practically oozing with charisma and ultimately the thing's a pretty harmless little kids movie. There are worse ways to spend two hours this summer, and if you've got some young kids to entertain, it's safe to say that, while far from perfect, it'll certainly get the job done.
