Whenever I see a film that is wholly intended for an audience of which I am not a part of, I feel the need to put in a disclaimer to let you know, so that you can take this into account as to why I am giving it a negative review.  Such is the case for What a Girl Wants, which has a definite audience for young girls of about 8 to 14, and probably little outside of this.  Sure, there might also be an audience out there of men about my age or older, but I suspect for reasons I’d rather not think about, just as I loathe knowing that the fan base for the Olsen twins finds a similar dichotomy of fans.  But I digress…

Amanda Bynes ("The Amanda Show", "All That") stars as Daphne, bred up to be a free spirit by her hippie-ish mother, who once had a brief fling with a British nobleman, who has been long out of the picture.  Daphne so desperately wants to know what it feels like to have a father, but Mom doesn’t want to go through the agony again, so young Daph travels to England to find out for herself.  Her father is Henry Dashwood (Firth, Hope Springs), currently the favorite running for office in an election that seems smooth sailing, that is until an unexpected daughter shows up, and a rather uncouth one at that.  Henry is engaged to be married to another well-to-do woman, and a manipulative stepdaughter also is there to make Daphne’s life miserable.  Daphne finds it a Cinderella story, but is she happier living as Cinderella or in just being herself?

What a Girl Wants is a very cheesy attempt at making another entry into the glossy girlie genre that The Princess Diaries tapped into, with a similar storyline to match.  Taken for what it is, namely, a knowingly and shamelessly corny attempt to entertain a largely young female audience, I suppose it works in a fashion, and admittedly, there have been examples that are far worse.  It’s so sugary sweet as to be almost unpalatable, and Amanda Bynes attempts to be cute and rambunctious at all times does tend to grate on one’s nerves, especially during the trite "let’s try on different outfits and look adorable" montages, while prancing around maniacally to the commercial soundtrack. 

You’ve seen it all before, especially if you are familiar with William Douglas-Home’s play, "The Reluctant Debutante," which was also made into a movie back in 1958, and the screenplay for that film provides the backbone for What a Girl Wants (I assume the name change is meant to appeal to the aforementioned young girls familiar with the Christina Aguilera song of the same name.)  However, as cornball as the main plot is, this film tries so desperately to be modern, from its fashions and music.  A more accurate description would be an even more watered-down version of Pretty Woman, with Colin Firth playing the Richard Gere role of the rich man having to confront his feelings while introducing a spirited fish-out-of-water, who makes him happy despite the displeasure of the crusty socialites around him.

This is very much the formula girlie-girl flick, so don’t expect any surprises for the duration.  It’s nothing new, and only the likeability of the performers is enough to elevate this throwaway nonsense from being outright obnoxious.  If you’re still at an age (or mentality) where MTV is on your television watching agenda for most of the day, you’re probably the type who might be entertained by this music video era comedy of manners.  Everyone else will probably experience a gag reflex when such an overload of cotton candy sweetness would be your only source for sustenance for the almost two hour duration.  What a Girl Wants isn’t necessarily likely to be what anyone else might want.

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Last year, I wrote a review of That Girl: Season Two that highly praised the show, but that also raised questions about the political significance - specifically, its role within the then-burgeoning feminist movement - read into the series today by its star, Marlo Thomas (please click here to read that review). Expecting emails that would essentially call me a pig, I was somewhat surprised to instead get a few emails from women readers who agreed with my position. Frankly, it put me a little off-balance (I guess I really expected some ticked-off readers). That Girl: Season Three ups the political and social commentary in its stories this 1968-1969 season - albeit in totally safe, ultimately innocuous, gentle, American 1960s TV network-proscribed ways - which some critics and historians may again see as signs of the series’ importance in relation to the turbulent era in which it was produced. But honestly, any American TV viewer could find social and political stories of at least equal (and frequently greater) impact over on CBS’s venerable western, Gunsmoke - a series frequently described by those who haven’t seen it as staid, formulaic, and artistically and politically unimportant.

I always have a good time watching That Girl. It’s a clever, bright, funny show with a lot of heart and an excellent cast, led by the incandescent Marlo Thomas. I just don’t happen to think its groundbreaking premise (it did advance a portrait of a young, independent woman living “somewhat” on her own terms) was all that revolutionary in any real sense outside of getting television to move further along in modernizing its portrayals of female characters. As I discussed in my first review, America didn’t just suddenly wake up and send its young women off to lead independent lives when the series first showed up on the airwaves; there were already millions of women out there who had already been doing that for a long time. TV sitcoms don’t initiate major shifts in society; they may, however, reflect them.

With the third season of That Girl, it’s obvious that politics are on the mind of the producers of the series, as well as the star, Marlo Thomas. Her character, Ann Marie, is a little more strident in asserting her independence from Donald. When the inevitable friction from their two different viewpoints surfaces (Donald wants to “take care of her,” while Ann fights to take care of herself), Ann’s reasoning is a tad more overtly political; quite a few dialogue passages sound like the speeches being made out on campuses and in the streets from that tumultuous time period of change in America. But the show is witty and wise enough (or would Thomas today say the networks demanded compromise?) to always temper Ann’s enthusiasm with humor.

Donald, the steadying rock in bubbly Ann’s life, is sweet and understanding when Ann’s views lead her off on a tangent, but he’s not shy about pointing out how Ann’s actions frequently backfire. There’s a quite interesting episode, The Defiant One, where Ann protects a little African-American boy who shoplifts at her local store. The young child tries to tell Ann he lives in a Park Avenue penthouse, but, seeing that Ann obviously doesn’t believe him, goes on a fantasy-spinning tale of tenement houses teeming with rats, and overcrowding from 13 brothers and sisters. Only when the boy’s father shows up at Ann’s, and confirms the little boy is indeed quite wealthy, does Ann see her mistake. Now, at this point, the episode seems on the verge of being quite illuminating - and fair - for exposing biases and prejudices that liberals possess, as well. Donald points out Ann’s mistake, and she realizes she’s been had by her own liberal biases towards stereotypes. However, the show ends on a note of blaming society in general, not those patronizing biases, for Ann’s mistake. It’s clear that That Girl wants to address social ills in this season, and that a certain uneasy balance and fairness is trying to come through in the scripts, but fashionable Hollywood liberal leanings still win out in the end.

Other overtly “topical” episodes bear those leanings out, as well. Secret Ballot, where Ann bones up on the Congressional Record to be prepared to vote in her first Presidential election, mirrors a situation no doubt occurring at the time in millions of American households: the notion of voting “the party ticket,” with young people breaking away from the tradition of voting the way their parents voted. While Donald - always the peacemaker - tries to get Ann to understand her father’s point of view (he demands to know what party affiliation his daughter has declared), he also points out that she’s being overly strident and obstinate about a subject that she knows will upset her father. And while Donald’s balanced voice is welcome, as always, the episode tilts blame towards the father (and, not surprisingly, intimates in this and other episodes that he’s a staunch conservative).

It’s important to remember, however, that despite the occasional sincere attempts by the production staff to keep the series on the pulse of the times, That Girl: Season Three is still largely homogenized and “network safe” for 1967-1968. The DVD box claims that among other social ills That Girl faces this season, spousal abuse is also addressed. But to call Eleven Angry Men and That Girl - a tame spoof of 12 Angry Men that shows a guy backhanding his wife in a strictly comical (and hence, weird) fashion - in any way controversial, is to really stretch a point. Ann Marie still engages in typically wacky, Lucille Ball-inspired physical comedy gags, such as getting stuck in a roll-away bed, or screaming and jumping on a couch when she sees a mouse, or getting stuck up in a tree. Much of That Girl still plays like a conventional sitcom, and does so most professionally and engagingly. However, That Girl is admirable in that it never “cheats” by dreaming up these physical gags or overtly comedic situations out of whole cloth; the humor always stems from within the characters’ actions and the situation (except, possibly, for the misguided slapstick episode The Homewrecker and the Window Washer, which has Jules Munshin out on a ledge for no apparent reason, while Ann trashes about ineffectually).

And as always with That Girl, the main thrust of story conflict comes from Donald and Ann’s rather strange sitcom relationship. In this third season, Donald has been toned down considerably in his insistence on marrying Ann; apparently, by now, they’ve come to an uneasy agreement on being a couple - but that’s all. As for the sex, well, apparently they’re still not having any, considering all the times that it appears they will, only to be stopped by both parties when they realize “it wouldn’t be right.” Watching these scenes today, it’s amazing how chaste and celibate the entire relationship is; the writers, to their credit, are quite ingenious in keeping the two out of bed. Although, in an episode like 7 1/4 where Donald puts Anne to bed and kisses her goodnight, the writers have no recourse but to just have him walk out of her hotel room because she’s “too tired,” when any normal adult couple who had been together so long, wouldn’t have parted at that moment.

And quite a few episodes still revolve around the rather ridiculous (by this point in the three season-long series) conceit of Ann’s father constantly trying to make sure she stays a virgin. With Lew Parker (in a performance that always puts me on edge; it’s never as comical as it is grumpy and somewhat joyless) seemingly arriving at Ann’s at any hour of the day or night, just when Donald happens to be in an innocent, but compromising position with Ann, the strain of that network-prescribed safety valve for the censors is really starting to show wear and tear at this point. Still, that’s only a minor quibble, because most of That Girl: Season Three is still smartly put together (the production is first-rate), with ample funny lines and the winning Marlo Thomas keeping our attention.

Here are the 26, one-half hour episodes of That Girl: Season Three:

DISC ONE

Sock It To Me
Ann is up for a part in the Broadway play, The Revolutionary Heart with star Barry Sullivan, but there’s one small hitch: she can’t bring herself to slap him across the face.

The Hi-Jack and the Mighty

Ann poses as an airline hostess to get background on an upcoming job, but she soon causes havoc on the plane when she suspects there’s a Cuban hijacker on board. Good line from Donald to Ann: “If there’s anything Castro deserves, it’s your father.”

Eleven Angry Men and That Girl

Ann is the only holdout in a jury deliberating a wife-beating case. David Ketchum and Joe Besser are here in this one, and Stuart Margolin does a funny bit as a hippie artist ticked off at the world.

7 1/4 (Part 1)

Donald goes to L.A. to do a story on violence in movies and TV, while Ann tags along, playing musical bedrooms with Donald. Buddy Lester has a moment as a hotel houseman, and Donald gets to declare, “Ann certainly knows all there is to know about sex.”

7 1/4 (Part 2)
As Donald researches his violence in the movies and TV story, Ann finds herself the star of some rather violent TV commercials for Action soda pop. Some nice shots of Paramount Studios, and Jesse White and Frank DeVol are on hand. Ann gets to say, “If you want some action, just open the door.”

Secret Ballot
Ann’s first presidential election is cause for some serious studying — as well as a serious argument with her father, who demands to know how’s she’s going to vote. Ann’s best line: “Well, what about my money, my identification, my eye shadow? Donald, I can’t exist without my purse!”

DISC TWO

The Face in the Shower Room Door

Ann meets her dreamy next-door-neighbor when he unlocks her shower door — when she’s stuck in it. Cesare Danova guest stars.

A Muggy Day in Central Park

Ann is mugged, and Donald dresses in drag to go along with the cops patrolling Central Park. Ann’s best line: “I never heard of an actress yet who got a decent part because she was mugged. Noam Pitlik and Dick Wesson are on board here.

Just Donald and Me and Jerry Makes Three

Jerry and Ruth have a fight, and Donald and Ann get in the middle of things, trying to patch them back up. Bernie Kopell shows up. Ann’s best line? “Donald, I have a woman’s intuition. You’re dealing strictly from logic and common sense.”

The Seventh Time Around

Donald’s firecracker-of-a-publisher has her sights on making him her seventh husband. Donald gets to say, “First I’m a lousy shaver; now I can’t even tie a tie. I wonder if I should start questioning my masculinity?” The marvelous Benay Venuta guest stars.

Ann vs. Secretary
Donald’s sexy, efficient new secretary makes no bones to Ann that she’s after Donald. Ann confusingly details her relationship with Donald: “We’re not married or engaged together. Because we want it that way.”

Decision Before Dawn
Ann gets an unexpectedly high residual check, and can’t decide how best to spend it. Larry Storch gets to say, “People spend a third of their lives in bed. Some less, some…more.” Vic Tayback is also seen.

Should All Our Old Acquaintances Be Forgot
There’s nowhere to go on New Year’s Eve, so Donald and Ann decide to stay at home — until Ann’s father puts a stop to that plan.

DISC THREE

The Homewrecker and the Window Washer
Ann befriends a henpecked window washer. Jules Munshin guests.

The Eye of the Beholder
Donald buys a questionable piece of art for Ann — and Ann begins to question his motives.

Dark On Top of Everything Else
Ann spends a lonely weekend alone at her parent’s house. Ann and Donald: “Who is it?” “Steve McQueen.” “Oh, Steve! Come in and ravage me!”

The Earrings
Donald gives Ann some expensive diamond earrings — and she promptly loses them. Best line by a disgusted flower delivery man: “Some guy blew 20 bucks on that girl.”

Many Happy Returns
Ann owes the IRS $2,600, and it’s up to Donald to bail her out. Ann gets to say, “I’m so scared! I don’t want to go to jail! Those awful dresses and they make you cut your hair, I think! And how long can I ask you [Donald] to wait?”

My Sister’s Keeper
Ann gets a gig as the Pop soda pop girl, but her lip-synching partner needs a confidence boost. The Thomas family guest stars here.

DISC FOUR

There Was a Time that Ann Met a Pie Man
Ann’s new high-paying gig demands she get hit in the face with a pie — and she’s having none of it. Until they get Julie Andrews to do the part. The marvelous Jesse White shows up again.

The Subject Was Rabies
Ann’s father is bit by a stray dog she brings home, and it’s up to the neighborhood kids to find the pooch before rabies shots are administered.

The Defiant One
A little boy convinces Ann he comes from an underprivileged home — but that’s far from the truth.

Fly Me To the Moon
The Air Force wants Ann to be their poster girl for recruiting female astronauts. But Donald’s apartment renovation is creating tension with the couple.

It’s So Nice to Have a Mouse Around the House
There’s a mouse in Ann’s apartment, and Donald comes to the rescue.

Bad Day at Marvin Gardens
Donald and Ann’s father get into a contentious Monopoly game over a rainy weekend in New York City.

Sue Me, Sue Me, What Can You Do To Me?
Donald loses his job when Ann’s father slips and falls at his office, and the insurance company suspects collusion.

The DVD:

The Video:
Shot on 35mm film, That Girl: Season Three looks great in this full screen transfer. Colors are saturated, and only one or two scenes seem a bit faded. Normal, minor screen anomalies associated with 40-year-old series do occasionally pop up.

The Audio:
The Dolby Digital English mono sound mix accurately reflects the original broadcast presentation. It’s sharp and clear.

The Extras:
There’s a continuation of the featurette That Show…That Woman…The Creation of That Girl: The Woman on Both Sides of the Camera that appeared on Season Two, with Thomas again discussing the ramifications of the series on the pop culture scene. It gets a little sticky and generalized when she discusses gender politics again, but there’s a good focus on the actual production of the series, and some fun stills. There are also commentaries for four episodes - The Face in the Shower Room Door, My Sister’s Keeper, It’s So Nice to Have a Mouse Around the House, and Bad Day at Marvin Gardens - that again feature Marlo Thomas and co-creator Bill Persky. And again, they’re spotty at best (lots of silent passages), with solid, behind-the-scenes info sadly lacking. Particularly annoying (and frankly insulting) is the first commentary, where Thomas and Persky don’t even know who co-star Cesare Danova is, until someone obviously slips them a note telling them his name. Most fans of vintage TV have no trouble identifying the charming, talented Danova, so a little prep work on the part of Thomas and Persky would have eliminated this embarrassing moment.

Final Thoughts:
Moving towards more political and social commentary, while still well-within the network prescribed limits for sitcoms in 1968, That Girl: Season Three strikes a sometimes uneasy balance between the two opposed intentions. Still, it’s a funny, charming show, with well-written, sophisticated scripts, quick direction, and smart performances, particularly by super-sharp Marlo Thomas and easy-going Ted Bessell. I highly recommend That Girl: Season Three.

Paul Mavis is an internationally published film and television historian, a member of the Online Film Critics Society, and the author of The Espionage Filmography

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Let me say upfront that I am not the target audience for Step Up. I’m over the age of 16 (by a long shot), I’m male and I don’t think of Save the Last Dance as an art film. That said, however, I’d like to think I can appreciate even a teeny bopper dance flick if it’s done well.

But Step Up isn’t so much done well as well-done, as in overcooked. Its recipe is straightforward enough: Add two parts The Cutting Edge, two parts Dirty Dancing, one part Fame and stir briskly. The result is flavorless gristle. Being that this is the kind of movie where you know within the first 10 minutes every plot point that will follow, any subsequent entertainment value is going to come from appreciating the mechanics of how it’s done. How’s the chemistry of the leads? How’s the dancing? Is the movie sexy? Charming? Funny? (The answers, in case you’re interested: so-so / not enough of it / no / not really / inadvertently so).

Tyler Gage (Channing Tatum), a hunky car thief in inner-city Baltimore, is busted for trashing a stage inside the Maryland School of the Arts. In a creative bit of alternative sentencing, a judge orders Ty to 200 hours of janitorial service at the school, where he whittles away the time doing urban dance moves in the parking lot and subsequently catching the attention of Nora (Jenna Dewan), a well-to-do, ambitious dance student.

Nora is busy rehearsing for her super-important showcase in hopes of landing a professional dance gig that will spare her the agony of attending an Ivy League school. But d’oh! Her dance partner winds up on crutches and evidently all the other male dancers at the performing-arts school have the coordination of Don Knotts on an acid trip. It looks like lovely Nora has no recourse but to talk the school principal (”Six Feet Under’s” Rachel Griffiths, obviously slumming it here) into letting her team up with Ty, the good-looking thug from the wrong side of the tracks. Don’t think I’m giving anything away when I suggest that these two kids might end up falling in love, but not before the foreplay of learning valuable life lessons.

Step Up is tepid, by-the-numbers fluff that doesn’t even deliver much in the way of dance until the end. By then, it’s too little and too late to care.

The DVD

The Video:

The picture, in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, is excellent quality. Step Up has little to recommend it, but cinematographer Michael Seresin — whose credits include Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Angel Heart and a movie Step Up owes much to, Fame — lends the film a bit of much-needed credibility. The picture quality is vivid, detailed and full of rich colors.

The Audio:

The audio is crisp and free of distortion or drop-off, a solid Dolby Digital 5.1 track ensuring that every cringe-inducing line of dialogue comes through loud and clear. A French track is available in 2.0, while subtitles are available in English and Spanish.

Extras:

A commentary track with director-choreographer Anne Fletcher, Tatum, Dewan and hip-hop choreographer Jamal Sims is breezy and lighthearted. The four-minute, 38-second featurette, Making the Moves, gives an overview of the film’s choreography. Seven deleted scenes, all of which are unnecessary and have optional commentary by Fletcher, combine for an aggregate length of four minutes, 12 seconds.

The DVD includes a soundtrack promo and music videos for the following:
Samantha Jade - “Step Up”
Sean Paul, featuring Keyshia Cole - “(When You Gonna) Give It Up to Me”
Chris Brown - “Say Goodbye”
Ciara, featuring Chamillionaire

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Unlike one of the other documentaries that accompanies Cellular,
"Celling Out," this one is actually about the making of the movie and
is pretty impressive. There are interviews with all of the major cast
members and plenty of good footage from the set, which I also found
particularly interesting because I have been to so many of the
locations on which the movie was filmed. It’s interesting to watch a
movie being made and to know exactly where they are and what that
environment is like.

At one point in the documentary someone claims that Chris Evans, who
plays Ryan, is the next Tom Cruise. He turns in an impressive
performance, but I wouldn’t go THAT far. Just as I would disagree,
despite the fact that director David Ellis says "dude" a lot, that he
is "the" dude. David Ellis is NOT the Dude. Jeff Bridges is the Dude.

Other than that, this gives a pretty good look at the making of the
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"Or Michael Myers: The Wonder Years." (Pretty Bad)

What