Calendar Girl

A routine but pleasant comedy about three best friends (Jason Priestley, Gabriel Olds, Jerry O'Connell) who are obsessed with Marilyn Monroe. They pool their resources to plan a road trip to meet their idol. Film is set in 1962 and uses good attention to period detail and music.

Jason Priestley as box office draw? Get real! If his "career" hadn't already been dead, this "effort" definitely would have killed it.

The story here is that of three childhood buddies and their infatuation with Marilyn Monroe, told in flash backs. Nice 1950s & 60s "Americana", complete with golden oldie tunes, fashions, movie clips, cars and other period gimmicks. Other than the "time travel" perks, there's not much to see.

A perpetually cigarette-smoking, baby-faced Priestly becomes annoying. The "tough guy" image of his character reminds us of the equally unbelievable Prince in "Purple Rain". This is no "Stand By Me", so be prepared for a disappointment.

Priestley tries to bring that handsome charm from the small screen to the big screen in this dull fantasy about three high school grads who fulfill their dream date with Marilyn Monroe in 1962 Hollywood. Priestley is a capable young actor, but he needs better scripts than this.

Three friends grow up worshipping Marilyn Monroe. When they are in their late teens they decide to drive out to Hollywood to meet her. Roy, Ned and Scott head off a week before Roy is due to join the army. They stay with Roy's uncle Harvey and begin their quest, however Roy has borrowed mobster money and his fathers car for the trip and before long the Gallo brothers come looking for their cash.

As I sat to watch this, it did cross my mind that I didn't really need to watch another coming of age movie set in the 50's and 60's. However I thought the premise was interesting enough to justify the time. However the film fails to use the idea of the quest to meet Monroe to raise anything more than a few laughs. We also have to deal with the usual subplots of teenage angst, girls, sex, anger at father etc, these take even more of the comedy away leaving a so-so comedy with bits of drama forced in.

The characters are standard – Priestly plays the cocky one, Olds plays the thoughtful one and O'Connell plays the shy, cowardly one. The only interest is provided by the support cast - Pantoliano is good as Roy's uncle with a typically Hollywood obsession with looks and Tobolowsky and Fuller provide the only quirky characters as the Gallo's. The idea of Monroe as the holy grail would have worked better if the film didn't try to have her as a shadow but also use her – her memory is badly used here.

Overall this has some funny scenes but not enough to justify the film. The coming of age drama doesn't really work and I think we've all got the `seize the day' message by now. Average.

It's not violent, funny, great, dramatic, nor lame. It's plain and simple, just an ordinary movie with a good plot, but not great either. It was a clash between fun and boring as well.

When I was younger, during my so-called "Teenie-bopper" days (which are now long gone now that I'm older), I loved Jason Priestley! I would tune into Beverly Hills 90210 everyday to see his face! I had posters of him plastered on my wall and one on the ceiling above my bed! Plus I had stickers, book covers, notebooks, you name it! Those were the days! I think I was like eleven years old or so. Now that I'm an eighteen year old girl, I look back at those days and say, "What was I thinking?" But I guess all girls (and sometimes boys) go through that "Teenie-bopper" phase in their early teens, but it always fades away eventually. (**grin**)

Anyhow, back in those days, I thought that this was the best movie I ever saw in my life, but now, I look at it and see just a simple and plain movie. It could be better in so many ways, but simplicity usually makes something turn out to be good. That's all this movie is...it's just good. It's not great, but it's not terrible either. It's just good.

Jason Priestley (who played smooth talking Roy) was good in this movie. I mean, it was a far cry from his (former) 90210 character, Brandon Walsh (who could forget Mr. Clean-Cut Brandon Walsh?). Now, Jason's no longer on 90210 and is married.

And Jerry O'Connell had the perfect face to play the dorky Scott, who had the wooden leg and was engaged to Becky. Of course, Jerry went on to star in other roles like in "Joe's Apartment" and "Scream 2".

By the way, what ever happened to Gabriel Olds (who played Ned, the peace maker of the group)?????