MTV’s The American Mall is out this week and proves that even though it’s a musical from the giant that popularized music videos, it doesn’t mean they can produce a great movie. TAM revolves around a couple of aspiring songwriters who happen to live out their lives in a mall, fully going after the upper-teen crowd.
The problem is that even their focus group might be put off by this shoddy production with talented (albeit unknown) actors, ridiculous sayings, and forgettable songs. It tries to feed off of the popularity of Disney’s High School Musical, but is sub par in comparison.
An average mall as the main, and only, setting further cements its inferiority to Disney’s for-kids musical. It could’ve been an interesting setting, but it becomes tiresome to see store after store that only serve to market different products (i.e. Rock Band) and bolster brand identity (cough, Sears, cough). A mash up reminiscent of Kiss meeting Six Flags, but to worse results.
Besides the generic setting, unlike a good musical, the story bits and musical performances in TAM are integrated poorly, one cuts into the other abruptly every time; seamless transitions were clearly not the goal for The American Mall.
From what it seems, in-sync choreography was not a central focus of the film either as the timing is clearly off every time a song is performed. The actors look dazed and confused while they prance around for every song break, indicating that little time and effort went into rehearsing for the final cut.
Poor choreography might have deserved a pass if the songs were good but, besides the few that standout, prove to be forgettable titles. “Dreaming Wide Awake,” “New You,” and “Sorry’s Not Enough,” are about the only redeemable songs from The American Mall. So much so, that the first song mentioned is actually performed three times during the film.
It’s a shame that the most important part of the film, music, is botched because the actors actually pull off strong performances regardless of the tepid story. TAM is full of sexy, energetic leads that would’ve worked wonders if they had better source material.
RANDOM MOVIE COUNTS:
- “Backspace” Annoyingly Used as a Word: 2
- Shameless “Rock Band,” the game, Plugs: 6
- Signs of the Declining State of Sears: 3
- iPod Worthy Songs: 3 out of 10 Mediocre “Songs”
Nina Dobrev, as Ally, puts on a charismatic performance that brings light to every interaction she has with the rest of the cast. The movie shows glimmers of hope every time she’s confronted with the mall owner’s fiery redhead daughter, Madison, as their arguments are rightly heated and believable.
While the movie’s titular “American mall” might bring in the teenage girl in all of us to watch, the single setting actually becomes one of its biggest crutches being that there’s no variety and all the backgrounds look the same. There are a few good scenes and a couple of great songs littered throughout (sometimes times three), but are scatter shot and not enough to carry an otherwise typical musical about people trying to “make it.” If you missed the premiere presentation on MTV and want to see it, don’t bother looking for it on DVD…this reeks of “Generic Brand.”
DVD Release: August 12, 2008
[Editor’s Note: Walking down the aisles of your favorite retailer you’ll see movies that you’ve never heard of. Even if you’d like to know how they fare no one cares enough to review them! That’s where “Movie Watch” comes in…oh, and we’ll try to cover movies on Xbox Live from time to time. Because if you’re gonna spend those confusing Microsoft points on something other than games, it better be worth it, right?]
More Movie Watch:
Starship Troopers 3: Marauder
Batman - Gotham Knight
Like a Dragon (Ryu Ga Gotoku)
Raising Jeffrey Dahmer
written by Carlos Macias
\\ tags: Ally, American, Brand, Disney, Film, focus, Jeffrey Dahmer, Madison, mall, movie, MTV, Music, musical, Nina Dobrev, production, Rock Band, setting, Song, TAM, time, Watch
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