Having grown up during the John Hughes era there is, I don’t think, any film or television show that wasn’t either directed by or inspired by Hughes’ spunky look at adolescent youth in love. That being said, at this date and time, if your not bringing something new to the table when it comes to this specific genre of film, don’t even bother. To bad this unwritten rule (that I just made up) wasn’t in effect when Disney greenlit Prom.

So basically Prom is about an unlikely friendship between a squeaky clean honors student and a long haired motorcycle riding rebel type. When Squeaky clean girl’s efforts at turning prom into a night to remember literally gets burnt to the ground, bad boy and honor student are forced to work together to rebuild. Hmm, what will happen? In the meantime the film is filled with side characters who go about their own generically borrowed plotlines ripped from just about every teen film or show. The only thing truly saving this sickening syrupy sweet concoction for teen girls is some of the young actors and actresses actually pulling off what some of us would call acting. As I watched, alone, I knew that without a doubt this would be a movie my girls would eat up and my wife would think is adorably cute, but being a hopeless romantic who grew up molding myself into somewhat of a Ducky type, I felt a bit disappointed and offended that the makers of this film, in the bonus features, would dare call the film original. If anything it reads like a textbook on teen romance films from the 80’s for this upcoming generation without changing much but the soundtrack.

QUALITY:
Prom was actually filmed using HD camera’s so the HD quality of the film looks, obviously, great. Skin tone is life like, detail is razor sharp in clothing, body features such as face, hair, and hands. The noticeable stuff. Unfortunately the color in the film is not up to par. It seems like such a waste that the film would be given a proper HD treatment, being that it was filmed using HD camera’s and not transferred from a lesser digital source, and color is not all it should be. Its a bit flat and black levels are a bit light as well. Of all the things to skimp out on color shouldn’t have been one of them. Audio has its issues as well. The opening dialogue of Nova Prescott (Aimee Teegarden), as is the rest of everything else, is front heavy and her dialogue drowns out everything else and sounds a bit hollow. Not sure how that slipped by but it sounds off. Afterwards the film straightens out offering a little bit of immersion, listen for Thomas McDonnel’s motorcycle in the film, and a crisp dialogue with a good blending of the films soundtrack and a bit of atmosphere.

BONUS FEATURES:
~Last Chance Lloyd: A short film all about one of the characters in the film that finds it hard to find a date to prom. I think because it has so few characters in it (Nicholas Braun and Raini Rodriguez) is the reason it works so well. It is a really charming short that has a fresher feel to it then the film itself.
~Bloopers: I really enjoyed these bloopers. I have a thing about bloopers when their staged. These were all captured due to line error or chance accidents. Very funny.
~Deleted Scenes: I would have enjoyed these more if they came with the option of skipping out on the introduction. The filmmakers of Prom thought they would share with you why the scenes were dropped and what they are about. Thanks, didn’t care, show me deleted scenes.
~Putting On Prom: This is where they try to hype up the film by telling you why it was necessary to make. I like the fact that some of the actor and actresses they put into the film are fresh inexperienced actors. Kudos to that.
~7 Music Video’s
~DVD Copy
~BD-Live