Sort By: By Genre  |  By Rating  |  By Year

Sleepover

Starring: Alexa Vega
Director: Joe Nussbaum
Genre: Comedy
Year: 2004
Rating: 2 / 5

Any movie that’s being developed has a particular target audience in mind. Even when directors and stars talk about the mass appeal a film might have, they are well aware that the film’s core fans will likely come from a certain subset of the population. In the case of Sleepover, the core fans – which, in this case, means almost all the fans – come from one tiny group – teenage girls. If you are a viewer contemplating the potential merits of this film, and you do not fall into this category, venture forward at your own risk. The movie certainly has its moments, as there are laughs to be found, but it ends up falling into a rather large bin of forgettable teen adventures.

Julie (Alexa Vega) is a fourteen-year-old girl nervously anticipating her move to the local high school for the next school year. As any teen knows, high school is all about social status, and Julie & her friends wonder what will happen to them next year. Will they be able to shake their outsider label and migrate over the “good” lunch spots, or will they forever be relegated to the fringes of high school society? Complicating matters, Julie’s best friend is moving to Canada, meaning she may be making the trip to high school alone. During an end-of-year sleepover, Julies & the gang enter into a scavenger hunt with her junior high’s popular girls, with first prize being a step up when the girls reach high school in the fall. Oh, and it wouldn’t be a teen movie if there was not a hot guy involved…

Director Joe Russbaum, helming a feature film for the first time, herds his eager charges from one madcap sequence to the next, but the net effect is little more than a made-for-television movie on the Disney Channel. Unlike some of the more recent mainstream teen flicks like Mean Girls and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Sleepover has limited adult appeal, although it does make for harmless fun for the teens of the world. Alexa Vega (Spy Kids) skips through her role, earning bonus points for playing a teenager while still a teenager. The plot follows the standard rules: the outsiders learn something valuable about themselves, the cool kids get their just desserts, and our lovebirds find their way into each other’s arms. Would you have it any other way?

Cast:

Certification: Rated PG.
Running Time: 97 minutes.

Additional Info: Internet Movie Database
Comments: Send E-mail