Reviews

Review: Hannah Montana: The Movie

Never gets too heavy

By TOM MEEK | April 15, 2009

2.5 Stars

VIDEO: The trailer for Hannah Montana: The Movie

Okay, I'll admit it: I'm a sucker for Miley Cyrus and her Hannah Montana TV persona. I went into her 3-D-movie concert skeptical and came out converted. Granted, I'm not the target market for such fluff, but I can tell you that Miley puts on a rousing show and never takes it too seriously.

In that paradigm lies her charm: she plays out every young girl's fantasy, living the life of a world-famous pop star while still having a normal life inside a rooted family. Certainly she's a better role model than many others in her line of work, and the big-screen version stretches her maturity.

Here, Miley returns to her Tennessee home town, but she has to call on Hannah to save it from becoming a strip mall. Along the way she falls for a farm boy who's unimpressed by her superstar alter ego. Directed by Peter Chelsom (Serendipity), the film never gets too heavy — at one point there's even a cat fight with Tyra Banks over, of all things, zebra shoes.

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[ 02/13 ] "Aphrodite and the Gods of Love" @ Museum of Fine Arts

[ 02/13 ] "Processes and Dreams" @ Panopticon Gallery

[ 02/13 ] "Artists' Books: Books by Artists" @ Boston Athenæum

ARTICLES BY TOM MEEK

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The Underworld series got long in the tooth early, but here, in the fourth installment (directed by Swede Måns Mårlind), it grows new fangs.

REVIEW: JOYFUL NOISE | January 10, 2012
There's not much joy but there's plenty of noise of the rafter-rocking gospel singing variety in Tony Graff's musical dramedy.

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Jolie has loosely reworked the story of Romeo and Juliet in an infamous setting familiar from CNN but here seen from the inside.

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For 50 years, Alvin and the Chipmunks have been driving parents nuts with their helium-infused banter and shrill bastardizations of pop music.

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