High School Musical

This film was my childhood I could never not like it.

CinemaSerf

6/10

12/7/2023

So here's "Troy" (Zac Efron) randomly selected to do karaoke at a Hogmanay party with "Gabriella" (Vanessa Hudgens). Neither fancy themselves as singers but after a shaky start.. Anyway, guess what? They are going to the same High School and decide to audition for the annual musical. He's the basketball captain-cum-heartthrob; she's a bit more of a mathlete but they are determined to go for the leading role - much to the chagrin of the established partnership of "Sharpay" (Ashley Tisdale) and brother "Ryan" (Lucas Grabeel). Now it's safe to say that his mates think he's letting the side down with all this glee club malarkey and so conspire with her friends to create a scenario in which neither want to compete. A bit of emotional blackmail and a well timed video achieve just that but do we think that's that? Perhaps our would be "Danny" and "Sandra" will manage to get their acts together and perform - despite a rather hastily, and mischievously, arranged scheduling clash? It might be sacrilegious to say, but though our starring pair had the better song ("Breaking Free") I actually thought that the conniving pair were better! Evans has way more rhythm than Efron and neither partnership really strayed too far from Eurovision song contest quality singing. It's one of those life-affirming dramas where you just know all is going to come good - and for the most part is quite cheesy. Thankfully we have some hammy interventions from the entertainingly over-the-top "Ms. Darbus" (Alyson Reed) to remind us that it's all just fun and though I'm not in the obvious demographic I didn't hate it!