Formula

While we were on the road, in the middle of the difficult day of multiple vehicle breakdowns, we stopped off at a Wal-Mart. Okay, let me rephrase... a few different times, we stopped off at different Wal-Marts. This one was in Amarillo, though, and I bought my girls a new DVD, since Spike had brought along a portable DVD player for the car. For all of you with children and long road trips in your future, I recommend making that investment NOW, by the way... Anywho, I bought a copy of "High School Musical," which is one of the recent Disney Channel Original Movies. Cute enough, with a semi-decent plot. Which is to say, not counting the normal suspension of disbelief for a musical (how often have you spontaneously burst into song, only to have your friends not only know the tune and words that you're inventing as you go, but also an elaborately choreographed dance routine?) you can only drive a SMALL fleet of Mac trucks through the holes in the storyline. It was funny though, because tonight the kids were watching it again, and this time it was semi-watched by all of us theoretically-adults in the house as well. And boy, do these things ever follow a formula... Through different points in the movie, us old people would suddenly burst out with quotes or songs from other movies. I started it, naturally, as the lead female had just had her heart broken by the male lead and was singing a song about how she was foolish to believe it was something real... I burst out with, "But now... there's no way to hide... since you pushed my love aside..." (Okay, so the men in the audience may need an explanation, but I'm way too tired to provide it.) The movie had shades of "Grease" to it in more than one part, a little "Dirty Dancing" ("Nobody puts Baby in a corner!") and, in one memorable moment, it even reminded me of the video for "Thriller." I think the girls got a little tired of us suddenly injecting other songs and lines into a movie they so obviously love. And it IS a really cute movie too... Just a little... umm... predictable. I mean, honestly, there were parts in there that Ray Charles could see coming, and he's blind and dead...