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.

I am completely thrilled that Modern Family won the Emmy for Best Comedy on Sunday! This was my favorite new show of last season, and the one I looked forward to most. I love all the characters on it, think the writing is spectacular, and never fail to laugh out loud numerous times per ep. Now let’s hope they don’t pull a Lost and go into a major sophomore slump. Remember how Lost won the Best Drama Emmy after its first season and then didn’t even get nominated for Season 2? Yeah, none of that now, please!

I totally need to buy the Modern Family Season 1 DVDs for my collection. Problem is, the set is still pretty new and therefore fairly expensive, comparatively speaking. I’ll need for it to go on sale first. Hopefully that will happen sometime before Black Friday, because I don’t think I can hold out that long!

BTW, when does the new season start? That ought to take care of my cravings for a while!

Speaking of E, I can believe he’s a millionaire! That throwaway comment from Vince about making E millions over the years kind of got my attention. I knew E was well off, but a millionaire? Hmmm.

At the opposite end of that scale is Turtle, who is still trying to find a way to make money on his own. I don’t understand why the tequila company owner was so up in arms about Turtle trying to secure financing. That’s what the guy needs, right? So why is he always such a jerk? I loved how Mark Cuban said maybe he’ll just buy the whole operation! I could totally see him adding tequila wholesaler to the long list of titles on his resume!

And Drama finally agreed to do the monkey cartoon show. As we knew he would, of course. After all, he’s completely out of cash, is losing his house, and desperately needs to be in the spotlight somehow. I hope this show embarrasses him.

Here are the weekend box office returns for the weekend ending 8/29/10:

1. The Last Exorcism, $21.3 million
2. Takers, $21 million
3. The Expendables, $9.5 million
4. Eat, Pray, Love, $7 million
5. The Other Guys, $6.6 million
6. Vampires Suck, $5.3 million
7. Inception, $5.11 million
8. Nanny McPhee Returns, $4.74 million
9. The Switch, $4.66 million
10. Piranha, $4.31 million

I was surprised they included a job-of-the-week — until I remembered that they always do this during finales. The case itself was kinda boring, but it was fun to see Danny Pino. I remember him from when I used to watch Cold Case. Even though they tried to scuff him up a bit for this role, I recognized him right away. It was also cool that he mentioned Barry. I always picture Barry as hanging out by the outdoor chaise lounges near the pool at a fancy hotel, sipping Mojitos all day long while he casually moves millions of dollars between off-shore accounts. Of course Barry knew this guy’s clients!!

It felt like Fi and Sam didn’t have much to do in this ep. Here’s hoping they’ll have a big part in Mike’s rescue, though!!

Anyway, I recently went on a mini-marathon and watched 8 eps over the course of a single weekend. They were: “The Moose”, “Yankee Doodle Doctor”, “Bananas, Crackers, and Nuts”, “Cowboy”, “Henry, Please Come Home”, “I Hate a Mystery”, “Germ Warfare”, and “Dear Dad”.

None of these were particularly memorable, but the two I liked best were “Henry, Please Come Home” and “Dear Dad”. I enjoyed the first one because anytime Hawkeye and Trapper try to outwit Frank, it usually leads to a few laughs. The second one was interesting because we got to hear how Hawkeye described the camp to a total outsider (though I have to say, would he really have gone to the front lines to operate on someone without bringing any friggin’ medical equipment with him???).

The other eps were kind of lame, especially “Yankee Doodle Doctor” and “I Hate a Mystery”. Oh, well — even when the eps are bad, I can at least ponder other facets of the show, such as how those soldiers lived in tents all year round. Korean winters can get very COLD and uncomfortable, so I don’t envy the 4077th at all. I didn’t expect them to have insulated cabins with king-sized beds, down comforters, and Elkay sinks with gold-plated fixtures, but those flimsy tents must have been unbearable — especially for a surgical unit full of doctors unused to rough conditions.

At any rate, I can’t believe I haven’t even finished season one yet. It’s gonna take a couple more marathons to get through the last 12 eps here!!

The donor, whom Kassie wants to meet and be in contact with, is Roland (Patrick Wilson). Once the arrangements are worked out, Kassie throws an insemination party and invites all her friends — including Wally and Roland’s wife. Wally gets totally annihilated at the party because he realizes this is the end of any chance he has with Cassie. While drunk, he stumbles into the bathroom and discovers Roland’s sample jar sitting there, waiting for the doctor to do his thing. Wally accidentally spills the contents of the jar — and then replenishes it with his own sample. He wakes the next morning not remembering a thing.

Seven years pass. Kassie had moved away to Minnesota to be near her parents when Sebastian was born, but now she’s on her way back to NYC and wants to see Wally again. Wally meets up with her and Sebastian, and is struck by how much the kid looks and acts like him. This continues as Wally spends more and more time with the two. Finally, after consulting with friend Leonard (Jeff Goldblum), Wally figures out what must have happened. He is mortified, but knows he has to tell Kassie the truth, especially because he has developed real feelings for Sebastian.

Unfortunately, Kassie has been dating a recently divorced Roland. This complicates the picture, and every time Wally tries to tell her what happened, something comes up to prevent him (isn’t that ALWAYS what happens in movies?). He finally takes action when he learns that Roland is set to propose to Kassie. At first she is pissed, but she eventually comes around so they can all have that happily-ever-after ending.

Liked:

• Based on reviews and initial box office returns, I was expecting an absolute train wreck, but I have to say the movie wasn’t that bad. Of course it was highly predictable, but Jason Bateman was likable as the main character, so I wasn’t bothered too much by the predictability.
• There were quite a few laughs along the way. I rarely do anything more than smile at these kinds of films, but this one had some truly funny moments. It’s not a “laff riot” by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s not dull either.
• Whoever played Sebastian was a good little actor. He managed to play his role as overly mature without going into that annoyingly precocious area that I cannot stand in movie kids. Still, I have to wonder how he developed that way with Kassie as a mom. Nurture over nature for most personality traits, right?

Disliked:

• Just once I’d like to see movie/television characters tell each other important information without getting sidetracked a million times and dragging out the inevitable. Seriously, does that EVER happen in real life? If you had something monumental to tell, such as a child’s true paternity, wouldn’t you MAKE SURE that news got out in a timely fashion? God, it bothers me to no end when film characters are so easily put off…
• Kassie and Wally had absolutely zero romantic chemistry. They were good as best friends, but at the final few scenes of them as husband and wife seemed way off.

Rating:

Are moviegoers automatically disposed to disliking Jennifer Aniston projects now? I wouldn’t blame them, given her track record. But The Switch is definitely better than its minuscule $7.6 million opening weekend take would suggest. It’s not great, but it’s a decent film that’s worth seeing. I give it 3 stars out of 5.

Speaking of doing things for the paycheck, I HATE the Vince/Sascha storyline. Why is it that every single storyline in the history of film involving strippers/dancers/porn stars comes down to a new boyfriend demanding that the woman stop doing whatever and/or offering to pay the same amount of money for the woman to turn down the job. As soon as this came up in Entourage, I thought back to West Wing where Sam Seaborn offers to pay Cuddy (forgot her name on the show) to give up her escort gig. I’m sure there are countless other examples as well. Ugh, so overdone!

I don’t get what Mrs. Ari’s problem is. Why are they in marriage counseling? If anything, Ari should be taking anger management classes, not sitting through therapy sessions where his wife just tramples all over him like that. Yes, he’s a loud, obnoxious, pompous ass, but those sessions really are dumb — especially when they occur RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WORKDAY!!!!

1. The Expendables, $16.5 million
2. Vampires Suck, $12.2 million
3. Eat Pray Love, $12 million
4. Lottery Ticket, $11.1 million
5. The Other Guys, $10.1 million
6. Piranha 3D, $10 million
7. Nancy McPhee Returns, $8.31 million
8. The Switch, $8.1 million
9. Inception, $7.66 million
10. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, $5.03 million

The Bible stuff was kind of boring, if only because it seemed like a bunch of filler until Robert Patrick could get into town. I am curious, though, as to what the coded message in the Bible says. A guy as powerful as John Barrett wouldn’t just drop everything and rush down to Miami unless it was for a VERY good reason.

Ha! to Maddie smoking Morley cigs!

Can’t wait for the finale next week!