Cinderella Story

Apparently, the unwritten rule in Hollywood these days is that if you’re looking to make a quick buck and are hard up for material, just recruit a soon-to-be-forgotten baby doll during her 15 minutes of fame and use an overly exhausted storyline. Uninspired director Mark Rosman obeys, casting Hilary Duff in yet another retelling of the classic Cinderella fairytale. Writer Leigh Dunlap attempts to break this rule by adding wannabe originality and flare. Instead of glass slippers, there are cell phones; instead of a foreboding castle, there is a cookie-cutter cottage with Pepto-Bismol trim, and instead of a wicked stepmother, there is a Botox-obsessed ditz on a foolproof all-salmon diet. However, Dunlap’s attempt is lame at best, since all viewers are left with is a cheesy Full House-like episode with its repetitious "be yourself" mantra, and a pretty boy Prince Charming with the looks of Calvin Klein’s next underwear model. Maybe this will be enough for the narrow-minded, teenage target audience, but the rest of the movie-going population should steer clear of this Cinderella story.