Monte Carlo (2011)

What is wrong with you people???? I just read the review from the guy that said it had been done before. Duh, can you think of any movie that's NEVER been done before? What a stupid statement to make about such a cute, romantic movie. And for the record, I would love to have this buffalo head show me a movie like this one. Clever, clever story, great writing, great acting, excellent photography, just an all around sweet movie. The girls were especially great and I referred it to ten of my friends who all gave it a thumbs up. So, please, don't listen to that Wlly Nilly and go see this movie. It was my idea of a perfect date movie and my wife loved and my friends loved it. What's not to love. A perfect little romantic comedy.

This may be a suitable film for kids, but the story is lack luster. The movie is too long and should have had more going on. Basically, a recent graduate, Grace, and her friend, Emma, along with her step sister Meg, go on a trip to Paris. They get hooked up with a bad tour, then a case of mistaken identity. Grace is thought to be a popular heiress. So she takes her place, goes to Monte Carlo, and gets to live the dream of a fancy suite, parties, laying on the beach. Of course, she's nicer than the real heiress, and all 3 girls meet guys they like, and of course, her identity is revealed. But no one gets in trouble because they are "nice". And it has a Disney ending.FINAL VERDICT: There's no mystery as to what will happen. The best part was the visuals of Paris and Monte Carlo, which are beautiful cities. Young teens will probably like it.

I suppose that many people will excuse the extremely low level of quality from Monte Carlo saying stuff such as "What did you expect? It's just a light comedy made for girls". I have two answers to that point of view: 1) There are some movies "for girls", such as St. Trinian's and Mean Girls, which were funny, interesting and very entertaining, because they had solid screenplays, competent performances and good direction. And number 2) That kind of excuse is only useful to insult the target audience of the film, because it tacitly suggests a level of ignorance in the girls which will avoid them to recognize the low quality of a film made for them. So, in summary: crap is crap regardless of the target audience it was made for.The screenplay from Monte Carlo is absolutely hollow and improbable, something which exacerbates the fact that it is totally unfunny and lacking of any ingenuity. Unfortunately, co-screenwriters Thomas Bezucha (who was also the director), April Blair and Maria Maggenti took the easy route, building the story on the cheap structure of a TV sitcom, free of any creativity, surprises and narrative integrity.As for the performances, Leighton Meester and Katie Cassidy tried to do their best, but their poorly written characters did not bring them too much to do. Selena Gómez feels listless and not credible at all, at the same time she shows an absolute lack of charisma. In conclusion, I cannot recommend Monte Carlo because it is a horrible film which bored me to tears.

More often than not, I found myself wanting to like Monte Carlo more than I actually did. It's not it's a terrible movie, but I found myself underwhelmed, mainly by the screenplay. It's full of charming moments, and some really interesting narratives and characters, but I found it to be a bit uneven, derivative bordering on tedious, and a bit overlong. I certainly don't think it's a one note story, but it still doesn't break any new ground, and even under developed.Still, the soft spot in me can't help but give this movie a passing grade, if only for the trio of lead performances. I will admit that I am a fan of the works by Selena Gomez, Leighton Meester, and Katie Cassidy, so whoever came up with the idea to put all three of them in a movie together is a genius. The three of them share a terrific, irresistible chemistry that deserves a lot better than the movie they're in, with the best performance of the bunch, I'll say, belonging to miss Meester.Like I said, I'll give it a passing grade, but if you're looking for a truly great rom-com, this sadly isn't it.**1/2 out of ****