Bubblegum comedy about four 13-year-old girls (including Alexa Vega) whose summer slumber party becomes a high-stakes adventure when they agree to sneak out of the house and enter an all-night scavenger hunt against their “popular” schoolyard rivals. Director Joe Nussbaum does some scavenging of his own, swiping freely from past teen flicks, resulting in a coming-of-age comedy which, despite an appealing young cast, is more formulaic than fun, and includes tasks on the scavenger list that may raise the eyebrows of some parents. Some mildly crude language and humor and thematic elements involving teen dating. A-II - adults and adolescents. (PG) 2004
Full Review
A summer slumber party becomes a high-stakes adventure, with lunchroom bragging rights hanging in the balance, in the fluffy but forgettable preteen comedy "Sleepover" (MGM).
Alexa Vega, of "Spy Kids" fame, plays Julie, a spunky 13-year-old who invites her best friends -- Hannah (Mika Boorem), Farrah (Scout Taylor-Compton) and Yancy (Kallie Flynn Childress) -- to celebrate the last day of junior high with a night of toenail painting and deep-fried Twinkies.
But the all-nighter gets ratcheted-up a few notches when snooty Staci (Sara Paxton), queen bee of the "popular girl" clique, drops by and challenges them to a scavenger hunt. Winners get dibs on the primo lunch spot near the fountain next year in high school; losers get to brown bag with the social outcasts near the trash bins.
The only problem is, Julie promised her out-on-the-town mom (Jane Lynch) she wouldn't leave the house. But given the less-than-watchful eyes of Julie's oblivious father (Jeff Garlin) and with a little help from her easily bribable brother, sneaking out proves easy.
The Herculean trials include schmoozing their way into a "grown-up" nightclub and getting a blind-computer-date to buy them a drink, and swiping a pair of boxer shorts from the town dreamboat (Sean Faris). Along the way the girls find themselves pursued by an overzealous neighborhood security guard (Steve Carell), forge an alliance with a trio of skateboard slackers and learn some ho-hum life lessons about friendship and family.
First-time director Joe Nussbaum does some scavenging of his own, swiping freely from past teen flicks resulting in a coming-of-age comedy that is more formulaic than fun. Nussbaum genuflects more than once at the altar of John Hughes, doing for tween growing pains what films like "Sixteen Candles" did for older adolescent angst -- only John Hughes did it much better.
Vega and company are appealing enough and the film has enough "girl power" moments to generate some interest among young female viewers whose preoccupations fall somewhere between Barbies and boys. Still, for older moviegoers, this slumber party is more slumber than party.
As far as bubblegum flicks go, wittier writing has appeared in "Bazooka Joe" comic strips. Here's a suggestion to add to the scavenger hunt list: Find a better script.
Despite the film's producer, Charles Weinstock, going on record as saying that he wanted to make a movie suitable for his own kids -- ages 6 and 9 -- "Sleepover" involves underage girls ordering drinks in a dance club, accessing Internet-dating Web sites, lying to parents and hiding in shower stalls inadvertently catching a cute boy drop his drawers. And while all this is done in a tame, light-hearted manner, such situations hardly fall under most parents' notion of "family friendly."
In one scene Julie's brother tells his sis, "Go be a teenager. It's over too soon." Unfortunately, this movie isn't.
Due to some mildly crude language and humor and thematic elements involving teen dating, the USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG -- parental guidance suggested.
The following movies have been evaluated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishop's Office for Film and Broadcasting according to artistic
merit and moral suitability. The reviews include the USCCB rating,
the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief
synopsis of the movie.
The classifications are as follows:
- A-I -- general patronage;
- A-II -- adults and adolescents;
- A-III -- adults;
- A-IV**
- L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
- O -- morally offensive.
** Discontinued classification. All archived movies that were originally in the A-IV category are now classified as L.