It rarely livens up...

Rating: 3/10 (7 July 2007)

One of director Herbert Ross's weakest efforts, an extremely self-conscious under-achiever about a born-to-boogie city kid who lands in a repressed small town under the thumb of a tyrannical preacher. There's no rock music or dancing allowed in this Right Wing Valley, so the local teens hit a neighboring town to shake off the cobwebs, including the preacher's daughter (too bad we don't see the preacher's wife kickin' up her heels as well, but the movie isn't that imaginative). Idiotic rethinking of the Hollywood Musical, with old-fashioned trimmings knocking boots with music video-styled rock and roll interludes. The cast just goes through the motions, though Chris Penn's learning-to-dance montage is very cheerful (it's hearty enough to wake the audience out of its slumber). *1/2 from ****