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Hannah Montana The Movie

5/10

Stars: Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray Cyrus, Margo Martindale, Vanessa Williams, Emily Osment, Lucas Till, Melora Hardin, Jason Earles

Director: Peter Chelsom

So this is Miley Cyrus. Well, the teenage goldmine certainly can sing, even if she does need her backing group to accompany her all the way to Tennessee. As for her film, you could wish it were better, although it does pick up speed in the last 20 minutes.

Mega pop star Hannah Montana is really country girl Miley Stewart, who rediscovers her country roots on a trip back home with daddy (Billy Ray Cyrus, her real-life father) to see her grandma (Martindale) and join in the fight to prevent a developer (Barry Bostwick) from turning li'l ol' hometown into one big shopping mall.

Miley's best friend (Osment, the spit of brother Haley Joel) is along for the ride, together with a photo-journalist, who is determined to expose The Truth. These sub-plots, along with a teen romance, are so weak as to be almost non-existent: everything seems thrown together like apples in a barrel.

Miley tries slapstick comedy, but isn't very good at it. Fortunately, she does what she does best (sing) quite a lot. Junior school girls are probably its prime audience

David Quinlan

USA 2009. UK Distributor: Walt Disney. Colour by deluxe.
102 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: U.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 28 Apr 2009