Camp Rock – Extended Rock Star Edition (Disney Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: B+ Extras: B Film: C
Teen
musicals seem to be all the rage these days; or so High School Musical would have us believe. In an attempt to make lightening strike twice
(or is it 3 times now?), Disney has recently created a new teen driven musical
entitled Camp Rock. The musical that brings many new teen
heartthrobs into the Disney family, as well as the familiar faces of the rock
star Jonas Brothers; Camp Rock has all the makings of a
Disney hit musical. The Disney Channel
Original Movie shot for the stars, but fell short and landed at Camp Rock.
The story
of Camp Rock follows Mitchie Torres (Demi Lovato) an aspiring musician who
wants nothing more than to go to Camp Rock (a famous and expensive music camp)
to pursue her musical aspirations. The
problem is that there is no way Mitchie’s family could ever afford the
outrageous costs of the music camp. In
an odd series of events Mitchie’s mother decides to take her traveling catering
business to Camp Rock (how convenient) and Mitchie tags along to ‘help out in
the kitchen.’ Once at camp Mitchie
quickly makes friends with some of the other camp girls, while other divas want
nothing to do with the aspiring star until she lies and tells them her mother
is the president of a music video channel.
Shane
Gray (Joe Jonas), a huge rock star, shows up at camp after his band mates (the
other Jonas Brothers) drop him off at camp to teach him a lesson for his bad
attitude and even worse reputation.
Shane is assigned to teach dance classes for one month before his bandmates
return, but even before he can get in the groove Shane is stormed by a mob of
adoring fans. While hiding from the
obsessed mob in a bush, Shane hears the voice of Mitchie as she sings to
herself. Inspired by the girl’s song, he
sets out to uncover the voice that rocks his world. Mitchie sets out to get it all, but her lie
may be the sour note that ruins her rock ‘soap’ opera.
This film
was obviously targeted at a younger audience and did not pull on this
reviewer’s musical heartstrings in the slightest. Where as I like musicals as much as the next
critic, Camp Rock plays out more
like a cheap trick (no pun intended) to pull in the High School Musical crowd than anything else. The charismatic Jonas Brothers definitely
help the sinking film stay afloat, but fail to save this bad day at camp. In the end the film was lackluster and drab. Instead of standing up and dancing in your
seat the audience will more likely standup and walk away. Besides the fact that the film is more than
predictable, the songs can be best described as unmemorable and drab. Whereas High
School Musical held some entertainment value with a solid cast and catchy
musical numbers, Camp Rock is just
all camp wrong.
The
technical features aren’t exactly rocking on this Blu-ray, but there is no
reason to sing the Blues either. The
picture is presented in a 1080p High Definition 1.78 X 1 Widescreen that has
solid blacks and a vibrant color presentation, but the image fails in the
sharpness department with an overly soft image as well. The sound is presented in a 5.1 Uncompressed
PCM track as well as an English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. For a musical film the sound is surprisingly
unimpressive, failing to have any power behind it as well as having a weak
surround range. One would think that
Disney would make a musical Blu-ray have an amazing sound quality, but that is
not the case here.
The Camp Rock Set Tours with Surprise Appearance
by Joe Jonas is the one extra that can ONLY be found on this Blu-ray
release. The other extras that are fond
on both the DVD and Blu-ray releases include How to be a Rock Star, Jonas Brothers: Real Life Rock Stars,
Introducing Demi Lovato, Camp Memories, ‘Hasta La Vista’ from rehearsal to
final jam, ‘Too Cool’: Setting the Scene, ‘Start the Party’ Music Video, ‘We
Rock’ Music Video, Sing Along with the Movie Music Video, Camp Rock Karaoke
Music Video. There is a good deal of
special features to view on this Blu-ray that range from interviews with teen
heartthrobs to music rehearsals, sing-alongs, and music videos. Overall, however, this reviewer would have to
say kudos and smores to the number of extras, but they are mostly a bore that
the ‘teen target audience’ will not even spend the time to watch; with the
exception perhaps of some of the music videos.
This
reviewer would not camp out for this release, but fans of such other Disney
telefilms as High School Musical may
find Camp Rock right up their alley…or
is it trail?
- Michael P. Dougherty II
