Why So Blu?

Prom (Blu-Ray Review)

Just a few months shy of my 34^th birthday; I am a little ashamed to admit that I am a fan of teen movies.  I care about Bella and Edward in Twilight.  I thoroughly enjoyed the High School Musical franchise.  The Vampire Diaries is one of my new favorite TV shows.  I would easily fit in with any sophomore class of girls.  Looking at the cover for Prom, I’m a little disappointed that the actors appear as though they could actually be in high school.  I come from the Beverly Hills 90210 generation where the actors playing high school kids are actually in their late 20’s – even 30s.  I’m just not sure how I feel about a teen movie full of teens.

 

Film 

Disney’s Prom centers on Nova (Aimee Teegarden), the uptight overachiever heading up the prom committee.  Nova has planned every detail of the prom and is waiting for fellow committee member to ask her.  As those around her are being asked to prom with various thoughtful gestures, her crush finally asks her if she wants to carpool, with no romance whatsoever.  Another couple’s romantic evening leads to a fire in the shed where the decorations are kept and all of Nova’s hard work goes up in flames.  Bad boy Jesse Richter (Thomas McDonnell) is assigned to help her when none of the prom committee members are willing to help.  This is clearly a punishment for Jesse.

There are no big surprises and the plot does follow a pretty obvious course.  Jesse turns out to really be a good guy.  His skipping classes turns out to be because he picks his little brother up from school and all his other bad boy ways are easily explained away.  It’s the typical good girl falls for bad boy story.  Nova’s dad doesn’t like it and her friends think she’s crazy. 

Among the other “happy couples” are the jock Tyler (DeVaughn Nixon) and his girlfriend Jordan (Kylie Bunbury).  Jordan has suspicions that Tyler is cheating on her and it turns out that he’s got a sophomore on the side.  Although I thought Tyler was a scumbag for cheating on his girlfriend, I did enjoy his prom proposal to the sophomore (after being dumped by Jordan).  He had a big boulder that had “no” written on it and a small rock with “yes” on it.  He told the girl that she could bring the answer to school with her if she wasn’t ready to answer just then.  I didn’t expect a prom proposal I hadn’t heard of and that one was kind of cute.

Nova’s friend Mei and her boyfriend have major issues as they have been together forever (teenage high school kin d of forever) but one of them doesn’t know that the other wants to go to different colleges.  Rolo has a girlfriend in Canada that no one believes is real, but he says will be coming to prom.  The list of teenagers with drama is almost endless. Because the fate of all the couples in the film is so predictable I hesitate to divulge many more plot points here in my review. 

I will say that Prom was cute.  It was entertaining, it was sweet but I felt a little old for this one.  It was worth watching for sure, I just don’t think it’s going to be one of those teen movies I watch over and over.

Video   

I was impressed with the overall video quality.  Prom is presented with crisp detail on Blu ray in 1080p high definition, widescreen 1.78: 1 ratio.   The black levels are deep and colors are rich throughout.  The filmmakers did an excellent job brining the atmosphere of Prom night to life and the images are excellent in all lighting conditions.  

 
Audio

Prom is presented in 5.1 DTS_HD master audio and was certainly sufficient.  I often found myself thinking, wow that’s a beautiful looking scene, but never had the same kind of “wow” moments when it came to the audio.  The dialogue is clear, consistent and intelligible throughout.  Prom offers a lengthy soundtrack as well as subtitles in English SDH, French and Spanish.

 

Special Features   

The quantity and quality of the special features is impressive.  I cannot complain about not having a blooper/gag reel as I usually do.

The Prom DVD includes:

• Putting on Prom – a making of featurette.  Cast and crew discuss how the movie Prom came to be, as well as their own proms.
• Bloopers – the usual silly stuff – messed up lines, funny faces, etc.

 The Blu-ray includes everything on the DVD plus the following:

• Last Chance Lloyd – an exclusive short following Lloyd as he asks out anyone and everyone in a variety of ways.  It’s cute, but gets a little long for my taste.  Some of what you’ll see was in the movie.
• Deleted Scenes – 4 deleted scenes with introductions by producer Justin Springer and director Joe Nussbaum.  While interesting to watch, and provides some additional information, I don’t think the movie needed any of these scenes. 
• 7 Music Videos – I liked some of the music, but admit I have not heard of any of these bands before:
  • Allstar Weekend – “Not Your Birthday”
  • Neon Trees – “Your Surrender”
  • Moon – “Time Stand”
  • Nolan Sotillo – “We Could Be Anything” (English)
  • Nolan Sotillo – “We Could Be Anything” (Spanish)
  • Those Dancing Days – “I’ll Be Yours”
  • Girl in a Coma – “Come On, Let’s Go”

Final Thoughts   

I did not go to my prom.  I did not go to my senior class breakfast, senior ditch day or grad night.  I was not very involved with my graduating class at all.  I wasn’t hoping someone would ask me to go to prom and can in no way relate to anything in this movie.  It’s been 17 years since high school, yet I still enjoyed Prom.  I didn’t love it, but I liked it.  It was cute and sweet and entertaining.  I think a slightly younger audience might really love it.  For a movie with no stars I’d ever heard of before an overall rating of 3.5 pleasantly surprises me.

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