Review of Geek Charming (2011) by Jerry H — 02 Mar 2012

I seek out family-friendly entertainment, and I can usually count on Disney Channel Original Movies (DCOMs for short) to fulfill that desire. Even if they're not Oscar-quality films, they usually provide ninety minutes of escape from the real world and all its problems.

So, naturally, I reserved "Geek Charming" at my local library as soon as I could. I finally finished watching it just a few minutes ago, and what did I think? On the whole, it was great! The story was fun and engaging, most of the characters were likable, it taught a moral lesson, there were some funny moments as well as a tear-inducing scene or two.

..it was really quite good. Sarah Hyland ("Modern Family") and Matt Prokop ("High School Musical 3: Senior Year") both did very well as the leads, and the rest of the cast was great, too; it was especially nice to see Canadian actress Vanessa Morgan ("Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars") in a somewhat prominent role.

Even the offensive content was barely there; about as objectionable as it got was one or two misuses of God's name and some off-the-shoulder and/or slightly low-cut dresses worn by the girls. On the flip side, I do have a few minor complaints: One, the closed captioning could have been done better.

Sarah Hyland's character spouts off several French phrases, including some that are well-known by non-Français speakers, such as "au revoir". It would have been nice if the captioner(s) had actually written out the French words instead of just putting "[SPEAKING IN FRENCH]".

Two, the regular usage of ridiculous-sounding "teenage" slang, a la "Lizzie McGuire", was slightly annoying at times. The biggest complaint, though, is that, although this is a step above usual DCOM fare, it still pales in comparison to the few wonderful prior Disney Channel telefilms, such as "Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars," "16 Wishes," and "Lemonade Mouth".

It's definitely worth a rental, though; if you've enjoyed prior DCOMs, you should definitely give this one a try.