Hannah Montana: The Movie

The wildly popular Disney Channel series moved to the big screen in early 2009 with this unabashed and surprisingly lame rip-off of Reese Witherspoon's Sweet Home Alabama. L.A. teen Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus) leads a double life—in addition to being a normal high-school student she's also pop-singing starlet Hannah Montana—and she's mentored and monitored by her father/manager Robby Ray (played by Miley's real-life dad, Billy Ray Cyrus). When Hannah's fabulosity begins to overshadow Miley's life, good ol' pops brings his big-headed girl back to their Tennessee hometown for a refresher course in humility. Miley does the fish-out-of-water thing for several reels (“I want my life back,” she whines early on) before she eventually comes to realize that ordinary folks can be just as interesting as showbiz types, while also reconnecting with grammar-school classmate Travis (Lucas Till), who's grown up to look like a studly young cowboy. Hannah Montana's excellent adventure will probably delight Miley Cyrus' legion of ‘tween fans, but anyone else will note that the movie barely has enough plot for a half-hour TV episode, much less a feature-length film (although it's padded with plenty of yawn-inducing subplots: Robby Ray lands a girlfriend, Miley keeps dodging an indefatigable gossip reporter, a heartless real-estate developer plans to build a garish mall on a beautiful local meadow, etc.—as well as the inevitable music numbers). Optional. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by director Peter Chelsom, a 15-minute “Find Your Way Back Home” segment featuring Miley Cyrus and Emily Osment visiting their respective hometowns, an “I Should Have Gone to Film School” behind-the-scenes featurette with costar Jason Earles (15 min.), “The Climb” music video, deleted scenes (11 min.), bloopers (4 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is “The Hoedown Throwdown Home Experience” dance featurette (15 min.), six additional music videos (another version of “The Climb,” “Back to Tennessee” by Billy Ray Cyrus, “You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home” by Hannah Montana, “Let's Get Crazy” by Hannah Montana, “Bless the Broken Road” by Rascal Flatts, and “Crazier” by Taylor Swift), bonus DVD and digital copies of the film, and the BD-Live function. Bottom line: a fine extras package—especially on Blu-ray—for an uninspired but sure-to-be-popular ‘tween film.] (E. Hulse)