High School Musical 2 (2007)

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Troy Bolton (played by Zac Efron), Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens), and the rest of the East High School Wildcats are looking forward to summer vacation. They won’t just be hanging out and partying, however. They’ve got to think about their futures, which means getting jobs and saving money for college.

Things start off well on that front, as Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) arranges for Troy to get a job at the Lava Springs Country Club, where her parents are on the board of directors. Of course, she didn’t do this out of the goodness of her heart. She has her eyes set on Troy and will do anything she can to wrestle him away from Gabriella. Sharpay’s plans hit an initial snag when she learns to her horror that Troy wrangled jobs for all of his friends, too — including Gabriella.

Still, Sharpay isn’t willing to give up on Troy so quickly. She separates him from the rest of the group by pulling him off kitchen duty to have him caddy for her father. While on the course, Sharpay talks Troy up, and convinces her father to put in a good word at the local university so Troy can get a basketball scholarship. The price? Troy has to sing wih Sharpay in the Lava Springs talent show instead of doing a number with his friends. Troy reluctantly agrees.

The favorable treatment Troy receives does not go unnoticed by his classmates. While they’re slaving away in the kitchen, Troy is relaxing by the pool with Sharpay, working on his tan. This causes the main conflict that lasts throughout most of the film — until Troy realizes what a jerk he’s been and apologizes to his crew. From there, everyone makes up, puts on a great show, and emerges from the summer as friends.

Liked:

• Honestly, there wasn’t much I liked about this one. I was babysitting for some tweens who insisted on watching this, so I thought I’d check it out. It was just terrible.

Disliked:

• None of the musical numbers struck me as particularly good or memorable. The one on the baseball field was ridiculous, and the one at the very end was just cheesy. The rest? Meh…except perhaps at the show when Gabriella came out to sing the duet with Troy.
• I keep reading about how Zac Efron is some young god with a perfect body, perfect hair, and perfect skin. I can understand why the girls would swoon over the first two, but I watched this on Blu-ray and his bumpy skin was a distraction in some scenes — especially the one where he was on the golf course with Gabriella that first time.
• The “plot”, such as it was, was as cliched and predictable as anything I’ve seen in a long time. There was absolutely nothing instructive or entertaining about it at all. In fact, the main message seemed to be: Be true to your friends, regardless of what it means for your future. Is that the right message to convey to high school students? Troy had a chance to get ahead and get a scholarship that would help secure his future. Isn’t that at least as important as maintaining friendships?
• The Ryan character has to be one of the most annoying I’ve ever seen in a movie. Why not just let him come out as gay already and not go through the dumb charade???? Oh, yeah — cuz this is a Disney movie, that’s why.

Rating:

I am not in the target audience, so I doubt that my review of High School Musical 2 will carry much weight with anyone. But wow, this was just a terrible movie that only girls with a massive crush on Zac Efron would like or appreciate. I give this film 1 star out of 5.