Trailer Park: High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008)

The Dark Knight aside (and a legion of readers rejoice at the start of something new on this blog), if there's one other movie coming out this year that gets me into the theaters, this is probably it. But the trailer's not helping the case, because it seems like some of the magic is gone.

Note the hackneyed heartbeat accompanying a black screen and flashes of familiar locations, right up to the "This will get them excited" shot of the #14 jersey. Then we have a brief exchange that, upon further consideration, doesn't really make sense. What do you mean, Troy, when you ponder whether or not you'll be getting diplomas? Are you in danger of failing geometry (I thought Ryan might be held back because of his presumed illiteracy), or is this an inside joke about how Disney won't let you graduate?

Then quick flashes of the whole principal cast just to remind you which end is up. There's something about the aesthetics here that seems... off. The video seems slightly blurry, lacking some of the pristine color hemorrhaging the first two movies bore. Plus there's something squeakier about Ashley Tisdale's voice. Maybe it's the nose job or maybe it's a poor quality recording, but my ears are pretty good at discerning little differences and my Spidey Sense is definitely tingling here.

Plus there's a lot in this trailer that's laughable. Prom never looked so organized, despite the somewhat raunchy and too-PG-for-Disney-Channel dance moves sported by Ms. Hudgens. And what's up with the Troy/Chad duet... in a junkyard?! Then there's the embarassingly corny moment where Troy needs to make the game shot, and all he can see is his girlfriend in the stands, singing to him that she believes in him. I haven't seen this much camp since a certain Adam West donned a certain Batsuit in a certain decade.

I do, however, like what they've done with Sharpay. It seems they're moving away from making her the villain again and having her just be more of a self-absorbed senior ninny with a pretty dress on the brain. And her brother's taking a backseat again. Marvelous.

Then again, Jeff Garlin once said that there's no point in reviewing movies like The Dukes of Hazzard because "Of course it's going to be bad! It's The Dukes of Hazzard! If you like this kind of thing, you'll like the movie!" So I suppose the same is true here; I enjoyed the first two, and I'll probably have just as good a time with this one.

Then again, I'm getting too old for this sort of thing.