1. This movie is nothing like The Lizzie McGuire Movie. The film ads for Monte Carlo gave the impression that this is strictly a film about a small town American girl in Europe who looks like a rich heiress and they switch identities, essentially the plot of the Hillary Duff Lizzie movie from 2003. Instead, Selena Gomez’s Grace is small town girl who wants nothing to do with assuming the identity of the bitchy heiress she’s a doppelganger for. She gets roped into the shenanigans by her best friend. Additionally, Grace only continues the charade when she realizes that the heiress is in Monte Carlo to help promote the opening of a school for underprivileged children. Sure, identity theft is a pretty serious offense, but since it’s for a worthy cause, the adults let it slide.

2. Selena Gomez is actually a pretty good actress given the right material. This is the second film of hers I’ve watched in which she’s been out of the shadow of Disney. Her acting on the hit sitcom, Wizards of Waverly Place, can get pretty grating and Gomez’s character is selfish and mean. In Monte Carlo, the young actress is allowed to play naïve and nice, for a change, and she holds her own against more established actors like co-stars, Leighton Meester and Katie Cassidy.

3. Hey, this movie isn’t just about Gomez’s character. Meester and Cassidy share the same amount of screen time and follow their own story arcs over the course of the film. Unfortunately, you wouldn’t know this from the film’s marketing campaign when it was released in theaters. Instead of promoting this as a romantic comedy about three young women on a trip to Europe, it was aimed squarely at the young Disney crowd. A shame because Meester and Cassidy are two winning actresses and their time on screen is quite appealing. Which leads me to….

4. Leighton Meester is very, very charming and should be given more opportunities to play in romantic comedies. I’m afraid that her role on Gossip Girl may get her pegged as a certain type of character actress. In Monte Carlo, Meester provides a lot of the emotional growth you expect from a character in a movie. Her character, Meg, goes from uptight college student with some emotional issues, to someone you fall in love with by the film’s conclusion.

5. Did you know that Cory Monteith (Glee) is in this film? Neither did I! The guy only stars on one of the most successful pop culture phenomena in the past ten years and he was no where to be found in the TV ads! And this isn’t a case of the young man popping up in a cameo early in the film. Monteith’s Owen plays an integral role in the entire plot involving Cassidy’s Emma. Monteith is sturdy in his performance and makes a cute companion to Cassidy.

6. Andie McDowell still acts. Alright, that last one was a little snarky. I was surprised to see the once leading actress relegated to the “mom” role. She’s such a fine actress, adding much more depth to her few scenes than was probably on the page. I wish she did more acting. Oh wait, she’s in Footloose, isn’t she, playing… the mom. Somebody please write her an intelligent, mature romantic comedy right away.

To wrap this up, Monte Carlo is a safe, fun movie that you can watch with your daughter, whether she’s twelve or fifteen. For me, a dad who’s seeing some of his father/daughter time diminishing as she gets older and her interests don’t include her dad, it was nice that we got to bond over this movie. It’s even nicer that Monte Carlo is delightful and provided enough laughs and emotional moments to occupy an hour and a half.

By the way, I said that I’d get a quote from my daughter for this review. All I could get out of her was, “I liked it. I’d watch that again.” I guess that’s all you need to know.

For the young ones you have the story of Romona, an adventurous third grader with a vivid imagination. Romona always seems to be on the cusp of getting in trouble, but it’s not because she’s a bad girl. It’s just that things don’t always go her way. Loud and independent, Romona is an example for all kids to follow. She’s wonderfully portrayed by Joey King, a young actress who has that ability to appear cute and make you smile, but isn’t sugary sweet. Romona also has an abundance of love for her father and older sister, Beezus.

Beezus is Romona’s nickname for her older sister, whose real name is Beatrice. Beezus is a teenager entering those awkward years when hanging around with your little sister is kind of a drag. She  is played by Selena Gomez, the Disney star, who shows much more depth and heart in this film than anything else she’s done to date. The Beezus storyline, which entails her trying to get her crush,Henry Huggins, to go out with her and her dealing with the very adult issues of financial woes in her family, is aimed at the teenagers. It’s well thought out and compelling.

For those twenty-somethings in the audience, we have Ginnifer Goodwin as Romona and Beezus’ Aunt Bea. Bea’s life changes when her old high school flame, Hobart, returns to town. Josh Duhamel, that manly man from the Transformers pictures, puts on the charm and has a goofy good old time in the film. He and Goodwin make a cute on screen couple and he also proves to be very good with kids.

Finally, there is the grown up material of the film. This plot deals with Romona and Beezus’ parents, played by the always charming John Corbett and Briget Moynahan (currently on the CBS hit, Blue Bloods). Dad has just been laid off from his job and Mom has to rush and find work so that the family can keep their heads above water. The relationship between Romona and her father deepens as the movie goes on. The daughter encourages her father to follow his dreams and lifts his spirits when he is rejected time and again from prospective employers.

While there are some very adult issues being dealt with in the film, this is no downer of a story. Great casting and a well written script by Laurie Craid and Nick Pustay lift this movie high above the usual kid film blandness. Moreover, Elizabeth Allen shows visual flair and inventive filmmaking in capturing the tone and the delight of Cleary’s creations. It isn’t often that a family can sit down to a movie together and find something that is aimed at each and every one of them. Ramona and Beezus is a treat that lives up to the name “family film” and does it with pizazz.

Princess Protection Program (2009, Disney)

When the DVD for Disney’s latest, Princess Protection Program arrived at the house, my daughter could hardly contain herself. The constant ads on the Disney Channel and the casting of TV stars Selena Gomez (Wizards of Waverly Place) and Demi Lovato (Sonny with a Chance) made it seem like this film was going to be a tweenage masterpiece, or at least something fun. On a Sunday morning while her mom and brother slept in, my daughter and I snuggled up on the couch and watched Princess Protection Program.

In the film, Lovato is a Princess Rosalinda, next in line to the throne of Costa Luna. When her country is overthrown by an evil dictator, she is put into the Princess Protection Program, a secret organization funded by royal families to protect their daughters. She is saved by Joe Mason (Tom Verica) an agent for the PPP, who takes her into hiding in his own home. His home is in rural Louisiana where he’s raising his teenage daughter, Carter (Gomez) on his own. That’s right, the Masons come from a long line of Disney families without a mother figure. That means that Carter is a tomboy and an outcast in her school. Still, she has one guy who really likes her, Ed (Nicholas Braun), but Carter is too blind to see how much Ed, her best friend likes him, because she has a thing for Donny (Robert Adamson), a rich snob.

Rosalinda enters the Mason home and takes up the name Rosie, in hopes to be seen as a normal teenager. But, since she is royalty, she has been written as a stiff lipped, proper speaking aristocrat. This is supposed to set up jokes about the differences in classes, but you’ll find yourself saying, “Man, I’ve seen this a thousand times before, and better.” As the film progresses, Rosie and Carter become close friends and go to the school dance together. Eventually Carter realizes how great Ed is and how much of a jerk Donny is and Rosie is able to turn the tomboy Carter into a princess herself (all through the magic of a shopping montage).

Honestly, I didn’t expect much. I’m no fan of Miss Gomez; I find her acting abilities limited. And Miss Lovato, while charming on her own sitcom, grates my nerves whenever she opens her mouth to sing. Still, I’m not who this movie is intended for, which is why I sat down with my daughter. As with any film or TV show I review for Dadnabbit, I do my best to get a reaction from the people these shows are aimed at. For the first time in as long as I can remember, my daughter and I agreed on how bad a movie was. It wasn’t just the acting, or the writing that left plot holes as large as Demi Lovato’s smile. Not, it was that the whole package felt like it was thrown together for the sole purpose of capitalizing on the growing fame of these two young stars and their real-life friendship. Worse, the movie was boring, the worst crime you can commit with a 10-year-old girl. When your daughter starts asking questions about the logic of a movie or catching continuity errors, people, you screwed up.

Is there any reason to rush out and buy this DVD for your kids? No. Disney will rerun the movie for years to come and the bonus music video has already been playing on the Disney Channel. My suggestion if you really want a decent DVD is to buy the Hatching Pete/ Dadnapped release that came out earlier this year.