Review of The Bling Ring (2013) by Emma F — 30 Mar 2014

Yawn-worthy. Really, there is no real character development in this movie to speak of. I pretty much hate everybody. It's one of those movies that simply tells the story of what happened. That's it. It doesn't dig into the kids' psyches all that much. It doesn't give a crap to even try.

I watched the accompanying documentaries in the "Special Features" section of the DVD, and I was surprised to hear from the interviewees that these kids were not the spoiled rich brats that the media portrayed, but actually more upper-middle class with troubled home lives. The featurette mentions how the media portrayed the kids as rich when that wasn't the case. Well, this movie did the exact same thing. There is no indication of the characters having a rougher home life or coming from any sort of pain. They just come off as bored, rich brats who want to live the fast life like their celebrity idols. The only reason I picked this up is Emma Roberts and not even she could save this for me.

You do, however, have to give these teens some props on successfully breaking into celebrity homes and ganking millions of dollars of goods for almost a year without being caught or otherwise noticed. It might speak volumes about Hollywood celebrities' hidden feelings of invincibility, that they would leave their doors unlocked, house alarms turned off, and their spare keys in obvious places. It's like they think they couldn't be touched, that no one in their right mind would saunter up and steal their crap like this.