Prom (2011)

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I’m a guy who never understood the point of prom. Prom just seems like an extremely overrated event in high school that lasts for a few hours. Why is everyone so obsessed with it? Granted, I never went to a traditional high school, so I’ve never experience a prom personally, but I don’t believe that I missed out on anything.

So, as you can imagine, this movie was one that I was dreading to see! But, I decided to get it over with early so as to not further postpone the dread. Was I right in wanting to stay away from this film as much as possible? Did this film make me change my views on prom and recognize it as a wonderful experience? Let’s find out! Enjoy! 

And remember, SPOILERS AHEAD!

As the film begins, we are introduced to our main heroine, Nova Prescott, played by Aimee Teegarden.

She’s a senior in high school and the main person behind the prom committee, the committee in charge of…making everything at prom go smoothly…I guess. She’s constantly putting up posters around school advertising it as well as designing props and whatnot for the “Starry Night”-themed prom.

We also get introduced to some more high school seniors, Tyler and Jordan, played by DeVaughn Nixon and Kylie Bunbury, respectively. They are the…I guess…“Brangelina” of their high school and have been together for a long time. They’re even the most likely candidates to be names prom king and prom queen. But everything isn’t going 100% right for them as Jordan has discovered a girl’s earring (not hers) in Tyler’s car and questions him about it.

This answer satisfies her…and…that’s pretty much it for that scene….even though I still doubt Tyler’s loyalty.

Later on that night, he takes Jordan into a shed on the high school grounds and asks Jordan to be his prom “date” over a romantic candlelit dinner.

This particular shed happens to be the storage area for the prom decorations that Nova and her team have been working on for weeks. Long story short, Tyler and Jordan forget to douse one of the candles when they leave and the shed bursts into flames destroying all the prom decorations!

And do Tyler and Jordan ever take responsibility for the fire and damage? Nope! Granted, they didn’t know that they left a candle burning, but they could put two and two together and come to the conclusion that they MIGHT have caused this fire! And if not come out with the truth to the public, at least show some remorse/qualms in private! But nope, they do/say nothing about this incident. Maybe that’s a good thing. I mean, I can only imagine what Tyler might have said if questioned about the fire.

The next day, Nova is devastated at the damage and is forced to remake all the decorations for the prom, even though time is running out. And what’s worse is that none of the other committee members can help her as they’re all busy with schoolwork/other school projects. So it looks like she’s gonna be doing this alone.

Well actually no! The principal of the school punishes the traditional “bad boy” senior in the school (because he constantly arrives late, skips class, etc.) by forcing him to work with Nova in remaking all of the decorations.

The student, named Jesse Richter, is played by Thomas McDonell. Both he and Nova are not thrilled about this arrangement, he especially, as he doesn’t really understand the importance/point of prom.

Nevertheless, the two students have no say in the matter and quickly get to work decorating, building props, setting up, etc. despite their hate for the arrangement.

Ok, moving on from them. The movie also features some sophomores in this high school. One of them, in particular, is named Lucas and is played by Nolan Sotillo. He’s pretty much a rock band nerd who listens to bands that I’ve never heard of including Mechanical Sandwich and Stick Hippos.

So, what’s his story? Well, Lucas is in love with has a crush on his lab partner, Simone, played by Danielle Campbell and wants to ask her out to the prom…because sophomores apparently can attend proms…I dunno, let’s just go with it.

So he breaks the ice and invites Simone to attend a BBQ with him. This particular BBQ takes place at our good friend Tyler’s house. Yeah, I too am sorry that we see more of him in this film.

Once there, Lucas tries to find out about Simone’s relationship status and discovers that she was seeing someone, but not any more, which delights Lucas who plans to ask her to the prom sometime soon. But little does he know who the person was that Simone was seeing.

I knew there was something askew the whole time! Apparently, Tyler was seeing Simone at the same time as he was seeing Jordan, although Simone didn’t know about Jordan. Once she found out, she quickly broke off ties with Tyler. Yet Tyler is constantly trying to get Simone back in his life. Oh, Tyler, what was it you said before?

Oh, Tyler’s an appalling dump heap overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable…mangled up in tangled up knots!

Oh well, they’ll figure out their love…rectangle. Let’s get back to Nova and Jesse. They continue working together with Jesse arriving late every time and the contraptions never seeming to work causing Nova to call it a disaster.

But Jesse soon realizes what prom means to Nova and they start to become less hateful towards each other. He even manages to get the fountain fixed for her.

He even explains why he’s always late to their meetings. He has a young brother whom he has to pick up from school because his mom has a busy work schedule and his father is no longer in their lives.

So, our hero and heroine are getting along fine. What happens next to cement their relationship? Well, they discover that another high school near them is also doing a star-themed prom and they decide to go check it out. And by check it out, I mean having Nova ride with Jesse on his motorcycle in the nighttime and breaking into the closed-for-the-night school. Umm…this was such a bad idea…so bad that the cops were involved and Nova’s father gained a dislike towards Jesse.

Anyway, back to the other stars of this film. Jordan finds out about Tyler’s affair with Simone and breaks up with him. Tyler, in turn, goes back to Simone and tells her that he broke up with Jordan

and asks her to go to the prom with him to which she readily accepts.

Lucas’ heart is broken once he finds out that Simone has a date to the problem. And his heart is broken even more so when he finds out that Tyler is Simone’s date. I can hear the knife being stabbed into Lucas’ back.

Anyway, back to the Nova/Jesse story. We seem to be flip-flopping a lot here.

Nova meets Jesse the next day and apologizes for her dad’s behavior towards him. They then go dress shopping for a prom dress for Nova (even though she has no date), because she’s secretly hoping that Jesse will ask her to prom. Oh wow, she actually fell for Jesse…what a shock!

Nova’s father finds out about her feelings for Jesse and then heads over to talk to Jesse about leaving Nova alone because…umm…Nova has big college plans and Jesse will affect that somehow. I dunno, let’s go with it. Jesse agrees to this and reverts back to his bad boy self next time he meets with Nova.

Finally, the day of the prom arrives. Everyone’s having a good time and all wrongs are righted. Jordan and Tyler are name prom king and queen even though they’re not together.

Simone finds out that Jordan dumped Tyler, not the other way round. Then she, in turn, dumps Tyler and goes back to Lucas.

And Jesse becomes good again, surprises Nova at the prom, and shares a kiss with her.

Oh my goodness! We’re finally done with this movie!

You know, there are some movies that are so bad that they’re actually enjoyable, so you don’t mind writing about them. Then, there are other movies that are so bad that you don’t mind writing about them because you want other people to know just how bad they are. And then there are movies that are so bad that you just don’t want to write about them, period! This movie is one of those!

This movie’s soooo boring and uninteresting! I didn’t even talk about ALL of the characters! Oh yea, there were even MORE characters in this film besides Nova, Jesse, Tyler, Jordan, Simone, and Lucas.

There was a guy named Lloyd who spends the whole movie trying to find a prom date, a guy named Brandon on whom Nova had a crush in the beginning of the film, a girl named Mei who recently got into an out-of-state college and is uncertain how to tell her boyfriend, a girl named Ali who…does nothing whatsoever, and another guy named Rolo who honestly seems like he’s inhaled something that he shouldn’t have.

The story was stupid and boring. The acting was bad, for the most part, although a few of the actors/actresses were trying. The movie is filled with random background rock band songs (apparently Stick Hippos is a REAL band) that I honestly don’t remember nor do I feel they fit much of the time.

This movie should have been released under the Touchstone banner of Disney, not only because the content is more suitable for that brand, but also because I wouldn’t have been forced to watch it…and the hours would not have been wasted!

(You can click on the image below for an enlarged version of my rating sheet.)

So, the final score for this film is 12/35 = 34.29% (F) !