Picture This (2008)

The parts that ring very, very true make the badly acted bits worthwhile. It's a good twist on the classic Cinderella story with a great message behind it that all parents struggle with--once you've raised your kids properly, at some stage, you have to let go, and often that can avert a lot of the bad behavior from kids acting out.Loved it, but would have been better if they cast different actors and moved away from the signature Disney Channel-style overacting. Ashley Tisdale's maturity really shines in the scenes between her character and her character's dad (Pollak). I liked that Robbie's character was the sweet, gentlemanly jock from beginning to end, but I wish there had been more of an explanation about why he was with Lisa (Busby) to begin with -- was it because they were expected to be together as top jock and "alpha blond" of the school, did she somehow coerce him, was it because you're expected to have a boy-/girlfriend in high school and Lisa just happened to be the most likely candidate in his social circle?Also, more specific references to Camelot vs Nottingham would have been nice. It was a good idea that was kind of explained in the beginning, but they just seemed like labels slapped onto the Haves and Have-nots with no particular reason that tied into the rest of the movie.Overall good, and maybe I'm expecting too much from an hour-and-a-half long TV movie, but I'd love to see a proper remake/sequel.

Ashley Tisdale, who also was a producer of this movie, stars as Mandie Gilbert, definitely not one of the "in crowd". The cool, rich kids live in the gated subdivision called "Camelot", while she and her friends live in "Nottingham", with the emphasis on "NOT".Mandy has an ongoing fantasy about the cute boy in school, who also happens to be the star athlete and lives in Camelot, Robbie Amell as Drew Patterson. She tries to get close to him, maybe get noticed, by hanging out in the school natatorium, but she falls and almost drowns, but Drew ends up saving her. Mouth to mouth and all! So Drew, against all expectations, starts to take an interest in Mandie, and invites her to be his date at his family's own big party of the year. But she deceives her widowed father and he grounds her. She needs to figure out a way to get to the party on Saturday. She must have the help of her two best buds, Shenae Grimes as Cayenne and Lauren Collins as Alexa.This was a free loan from the library. I expected very little, and my wife and I found it fairly enjoyable, in a silly way. Never for a moment did we believe any of it was realistic, but it was good, silly fun.SPOILERS: Naturally the mean girl in school wanted Drew for herself so did everything she could to sabotage things, and keep Mandie away from the party. Plus Mandie heard that Drew only wanted to "hump her and dump her", allegedly a Patterson family tradition. But in the end Drew had sincere feelings for Mandie and pulled her out of the crowd to crown her his princess at Senior Prom.

This movie is horrible! Drew's character for instance is not even close to being realistic, I have never meet a guy who acts like him at all! It's so fake, the things he says, his actions, its stupid. Also as much as I adore Paige and Darcy from Degrassi, there characters were kind of dumb too, especially when Paige goes "I could write a million songs about him and never even scratch the surface". Yep, who says that. The acting is pretty decent expect for Drew and the three antagonists in the story, they just suck in general. And to finish it off, it has the worst ending in a movie I have ever seen, and is very explanatory.

I really thought this would have been a good movie the sneak peek caught my interest, but when I watched this movie I was disappointed. Everything moved WAY too fast. I mean she got the attention of the guy 15 minutes into the movie. 30 minutes into the movie they were practically together. Also everything in the beginning of the movie everything she wanted suddenly happens and everything falls into place. It is not realistic at all. Another thing is that part in the movie when the "bad" girls are chanting "Drew be one of us...", the main Antagonist of the story suddenly throws up. I question what the hell happened. Also the ending was crap, the dream guy crowns her prom queen, the end. Also don't people vote who the prom queen is? You can't crown a random person. All I could say is that it went too fast and ended too soon. 1 out of 10.