Spectacular! (2009)

I sat through all 3 High School Musicals, both the Camp Rock movies,Bandslam, and Lemonade Mouth. I even sat through Mean Girls 2. It was painful, but I managed to do it. This movie, however, I had to stop watching in the middle of it. At first, the movie was stupid yet enjoyable. Niko had some amusing snarky comments. However,after the first half an hour you realize that the characters are incredibly annoying. Niko is an egotistical whiny douche bag, and Courtney is a controlling selfish bitch. The plot is predictable and the acting is painful to watch. I think I need to stop watching these awful TV movie musicals. If you want to watch a good movie musical, go to your local movie rental and pick up Grease, Cry Baby, Rent, Chicago, Rocky Horror Picture Show, or Dream Girls. Don't watch some cheap squeaky clean garbage made by a kid's network. I give it a two because I'm in a good mood.

Spectacular! is Nickelodeon's attempt to compete with Disney for the High School Musical franchise. If you think it won't live up to the title.....Guess again! Spectacular! is an amazing movie about Nikko Alexander (Nolan Gerard Funk), a wannabe rock star whose band gives him the boot. Watching the scene behind the venue is Courtney Lane (Tammin Sursok) who, minutes later, offers him a position in her school sponsored group, Spectacular! Nikko formally says "I'll think about it" upon her offer to check them out at the county fair the next day. When he does, he realizes, their rival group, Ta-Da--lead by Tammi Dyeson (Victoria Justice) and former Spectacular! member, Royce du Lac (Simon Curtis)--is much better and declines her offer.After a meeting with a music producer, Nikko agrees to join Spectacular! after now having to convince Courtney. The rest of the journey is filled with catchy tunes and rough turns for Nikko and Courtney when several different complications pop upon along their way to the Nationals competition.This movie is better than High School Musical in my opinion. As a High School Musical lover, it takes a lot out of me to say that, but it is the truth. It is an amazing production. The music will be engraved in your head and it will be hard to extract yourself from the sight of the movie. 10 out of 10 on this movie. Nickelodeon definitely lived up to Disney's level.

Shot in Canada with a mostly Canadian cast, Spectacular! is Nickelodeon's effort to compete with Disney for the High School Musical market. It remains to be seen whether any of the characters come up to the iconic level that the principals of the High School Musical franchise enjoy.Music class has certainly improved since I was in high school way back in the early part of the Sixties. Nolan Gerard Funk is a would be rock singer whose band gives him the gate and sends his career sputtering into stall. Britney Irvin likes his voice and likes him and wants him to join her jazz choir which do all kinds of choreography and glitz in their work. They're in competition and she thinks his presence could put them over. Of course when young Funk gets several opportunities to advance his own career and get back with his old girl friend, Tammin Sursok, what choices will he make? The only difference between this and the first High School Musical film was that Zac Efron had to choose between singing and sports, basketball to be specific. Here it's simply different musical venues, but the conflicts in the young teen mind are the same.In producing Spectacular!, Nickolodeon will of course be accused of stealing the playbook from Disney's High School Musical which in point of fact they have. There's nothing terribly Spectacular in this film, but its nice enough and the cast is talented enough to put it across.Now let's see if they become the icons that the High School Musical characters have become.

Spectacular! has been called Nickelodeon's answer to "High School Musical", and indeed seems to be aimed at the same audience. I've been told that it resembles another Disney TV-musical "Camp Rock" as well.Putting comparisons aside, I actually didn't hate "Spectacular!". It was a fairly well done musical with enjoyable music, some good acting and done without a Disney-sized budget. Nolan Gerard Funk plays cool, tough-acting rocker Nikko, with almost the right amount of attitude. Tammin Sursok plays spunky, energetic Courtney, who recruits Funk's character to her "show-choir", thus setting the stage for the movies (surprisingly numerous) pop-rock numbers.Tammin Sursok is much more enjoyable to watch than blah-bland HSM actress Vannessa Hudgens. Sursok's energetic portrayal steals the show away from the good, but not 'spectacular' Nolan Gerard Funk. Funk is not unattractive, and has a very different appeal than Zac Efron, with a more rocker-ish way about him. Victoria Justice (of "Zoey 101" fame), also has a role in this movie, and does a good job of portraying the movies "villain", Tami.The songs are not quite as catchy as the original High School Musical's were (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), but have there own appeal to them. The way that the songs are executed is more believable than HSM's were (though still unavoidably cheesy), being performance based rather than "randomly start singing about what we're thinking"-based.Spectacular seems a little more grown up than High School Musical is, with a grungy (yet still candy-coated) feel to it that will likely be more interesting to older viewers (teenagers).It's not for everybody, but Spectacular is a quick, enjoyable film that will likely find an audience with those who didn't care for High School Musical.