Sleepover Review
by Susan Granger (ssg722 AT aol DOT com)July 14th, 2004
Susan Granger's review of "Sleepover" (MGM release)
En route to its rightful place on the home video shelf, this bubblegum comedy is aimed directly at the girl-power pubescent market, known as 'tweeners, and set at the beginning of the unsettling summer after graduation from junior high before beginning high school. It's a time, as the narration goes, when you're too young to have teenage fun but not too young to crave it. "Spy Kids" heroine Alexa Vega stars as 14 year-old Julie, who's set for a slumber party with her closest chums - Hannah (Mika Boorem), Farrah (Scout Taylor-Compton) and Yancy (Kallie Flynn Childress). Only their celebratory plans are complicated when these nice-but-unpopular friends accept an all-night scavenger hunt challenge from the in-crowd girls with the prize being a prime lunch table located by the fountain - and the social status it conveys. The losers will be relegated to a table with the scum by the smelly dumpster. With her mom (Jane Lynch) out gyrating at a nightclub and her dad (Jeff Garlin) installing a water purifier under the kitchen sink, Julie doesn't have much trouble sneaking out of the house. But then it's onto the illicit nocturnal adventure that involve sneaking into an trendy bar, rearranging clothes on store mannequins at the mall, stealing boxer shorts from the coolest neighborhood hunk (Sean Faris), and swiping the king or queen's crown at the high school dance.
Written by Elisa Bell ("Vegas Vacation") and directed by Joe Nussbaum ("George Lucas in Love"), the derivative and disturbing script encompasses almost every coarse adolescent comedy cliché and encourages outright lying and deception. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Sleepover" is a superficial, lame, tasteless 2. Bottom line: "Sleepover" is a banal yawn.
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
