A Cinderella Story (2004)
Directed by Mark Rosman
Routinely exploited by her wicked stepmother, the downtrodden Samantha Montgomery is excited about the prospect of meeting her Internet beau at the school's Halloween dance.
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But the film is directed like a zany slapstick remake of Pretty In Pink (mixed with You've Got Mail), and all the goofy antics undermine any potential for actual comedy or romance.
Sam's been carrying on a relationship via e-mail, text message and Internet chat, "You've Got Mail"-style, with a boy called Nomad.
Most of their scenes consists of them talking online, because no romance is complete without the “You’ve Got Mail” rip-off, so we’re subjected to boring scenes of the two chatting online, cue internet product placement, and PM’ing on a cell phone, cue cell phone product placement, because this movie is, like, so totally modern.
There are some nice ideas here and the central gimmick just about works, despite uncomfortable echoes of You’ve Got Mail.
Or maybe director Mark Rosman just caught up with "You've Got Mail" on HBO 7.
Unless "A Cinderella Story" is trying for a surrealist bent by having people react to something in utterly bizarre ways (I am reminded of the moment in "The Phantom of Liberty" where a distraught parent reports that her child is missing, even though she is sitting right there in the room.)…
Samantha (Duff ) has fallen victim to her evil stepmother (Jennifer Coolidge from the "Legally Blonde" movies), who makes her do all the dirty work in the family diner while her two airhead stepsisters chase boys.
In the supporting bits, veteran comic actress Coolidge , best known for her hilarious turns in Best in Show and Legally Blonde , is adequate doing the evil stepmother thing but is much better as the neurotic, liposuction-lovin', botox-injectin' freak.
But the least inspired character is the stepmother, played by gifted comic actress Coolidge, from "Legally Blonde'' and "A Mighty Wind.''
In the supporting bits, veteran comic actress Coolidge , best known for her hilarious turns in Best in Show and Legally Blonde , is adequate doing the evil stepmother thing but is much better as the neurotic, liposuction-lovin', botox-injectin' freak.
Coolidge â so skilled at parody in Christopher Guestâs Best in Show â has become a parody of herself, or at least a parody of the same dim persona she plays in every film, and A Cinderella Storyâs supporting cast of talented character actors, like Regina King and Paul Rodriguez, is slumming it, plain and simple.
As the mistreated orphan, tween fave Hilary Duff is adequate, while Jennifer Coolidge ("Best in Show") injects the proceedings with a bit of grotesque fun as a botox-dependent evil stepmother.
For a while, the updating of the fairy tale offers a few amusements, including Jennifer Coolidge ("Best in Show") as a plastic surgery-obsessed wicked stepmother.
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The press kit for "A Cinderella Story" lists a "Mark Rosman" as director and his bio lists all sorts of prior credits-everything from the 1980s slasher flick "The House on Sorority Row" to various episodes of "Lizzie McGuire".
Feed "Cinderella" into a movie database, and you'll get more than 35 hits, and that doesn't even count the multitude of spinoffs that used the premise but not the name (see "Pretty Woman").
Regina King , however, who was so good in Jerry Maguire , is just plain wasted as Sam's "fairy godmother," a no-nonsense waitress who tells the girl to go out live her dreams.
How do teen comedies like this still get made after super-smarties such as Ghost World and Mean Girls?
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Thankfully, Cinderella Story has a truly worthy leading man in Murray , the cutie from Freaky Friday (which starred Lohan , natch), infusing Austin with more soulful and romantic notions than the average high school hunk.