Lovestruck: The Musical (2013)

Lack of good storyline.

From my favorite movies..

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

When I want a movie that simply entertains, I am often disappointed with a movie with foul language or a dark movie when I was promised a comedy. This movie was an absolutely delightful surprise in that it entertained from start to finish. The effects and scenes were not silly but sweet and the music and dancing were icing on the cake. Good acting all around and solid light-hearted entertainment.

In true Disney style this movie could not be further from reality but that does not mean that it's not entertaining. It's fun, cutesy and very fairytale like. It's filmed in beautiful locations and the sets are extravagant and luxe. Perfect if your looking for a nice escape. Probably the biggest shortcoming is that there isn't much substance to the film. While this isn't a major problem it makes the story feel less genuine.Word to the wise - if you don't like musicals then don't watch this movie. Most scenes are filled with sugary sweet fun song and dance numbers. Sadly the singing was not very strong but the song choices were good. I was also impressed with Chelsea Kane's acting skills, she seems perfectly suited to this type of role and is vivacious and captivating. Overall I really enjoyed this movie and it left me feeling elated and content.

Lovestruck: The Musical is the latest in the recent string of made-for- cable musicals and the first of it's kind for ABC Family. Itemploys the "Glee" idea here and covers popular songs as well as original ones, and features such songs as "Just Dance" by Lady Gaga, "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" by Whitney Houston "Like A Virgin" by Madonna, "Everlasting Love" by Robert Knight, and "DJ Got Us Falling In Love" by Usher. The storyline is rather silly. A selfish Broadway choreographer and producer travels to Italy to sabotage her daughter's wedding, and ends up drinking a potion that turns her young. Through a series of events, her ex-husband also turns young by drinking the potion and they have to right the wrongs that she did while trying to sabotage everything. The cast is what pulls this one off. Jane Seymour plays the older Harper and Chelsea Kane plays the younger. Kane gets most of the screen time and is engaging and fun to watch. Her singing is mediocre, but her dancing is competent. Seymour may not have been the best casting choice (had I been doing the casting I'd have gone with Bebe Neuwirth). Her singing is dubbed and her dancing is the weakest in the film. Sara Paxton plays the daughter getting married and has an awful solo song that is heavy with auto-tuned production. Paxton, who has always been a favorite of mine, is a competent singer and does not need the auto-tune. Adrienne Bailon is also here as Paxton's horny best friend and maid of honor. Bailon adds her expert vocals to a few songs and also serves a purpose to the plot, unlike Mary J. Blige in "Rock of Ages" who served no purpose in that film. Drew Seeley and Tom Wopat play the ex husband in his younger and older forms. Wopat lays on the comedy thick, and Seeley has never been more charming. He gets to show off his great dancing and singing in the highlight number of the film "DJ Got Us Falling In Love", a duet with Kane. It's also nice to see Wopat's singing skills not wasted. The cast is rounded out by Alexander DiPersia, who is unmemorable, if flat as Paxton's reformed philanderer husband-to-be.As a whole, Lovestruck is silly, and at times overly cutesy, but has several moments of amusing comedy and fun music. It seemed to get lost in it's musical numbers at times. "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" seems to go on forever, as did "Like A Virgin". It also seemed to be emulating "Mamma Mia" too much, with it's foreign locale and daughter getting married plot. Some of the choreography was hokey in the ending sequence (i.e. the cast bending into each other making a heart with their arms from the bride and groom to walk under). Despite a lot of it's flaws, I still found it to be an engaging hour and a half.

I rather enjoyed this movie. Sure, the plot's predictable, but the songs that they choose fit the scenes so well that it kinda makes up for it. With that being said, I think they sort of overdid the songs they had in the movie; sure, the performances were great, but they literally had a song in almost EVERY SCENE, which kind of bogged down the movie. But the part with the dad turning young was fun, especially the dance her and the mom do to Usher's DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love; it's probably the best part of the movie. All in all, it was a decent and kinda cute movie, but would probably have been better off as a Broadway musical. Just saying.