A Week Away

Will hit rock bottom when he had the choice to either go to camp or to.youth detention center. There he found friendship, love and God and family. When he first got to camp he didn't want to be there but the longer he was there the more he actually liked it. This movie might be a little cheesy but it's better than the 1 star ratings some are giving it.

Who doesn't like camp plus music? It was a pretty fun movie. It's not the best musical, but it gave me a good hour and a half to enjoy while getting back home.

This is Camp Rock for the church crowd with a dash of High School Musical sprinkled in (the two leads will remind you of Troy and Gabriella). You'll especially love the movie if you were into Christian music in the late 80's and 90's (there are even a couple of artist cameos for you).

I am a Christian, but my eyes get sore watching Christian movies because I'm rolling them so hard. They're very typically over-earnest, heavy-handed, and usually far-right in sentiment. One Week Away is none of these things, and if you like Camp Rock you'll enjoy this movie too, whether you appreciate the churchy message or not. The themes are universal: love, redemption, belonging, and the characters play through the themes without being schlocky - or at least more schlocky than any teen musical. I like that Will asks the hard questions that Christians are often afraid to ask, and there's no ready answer for him.

There are many things to criticize - the acting is at times uneven and the music isn't for everyone (although the showstopper is the Awesome God/God Only Knows mashup - brilliant performance), but the movie was short and fun and a very pleasant trip down memory lane for me. Worth watching, and worth watching with the kids.

Troublesome orphan Will Hawkins (Kevin Quinn) is on his last chance. He's set to go to group home until foster parent Kristin (Sherri Shepherd) volunteers to take him in. Only he has to join her and her son George at a Christian camp run by David (David Koechner). Immediately, he falls for sweetie Avery (Bailee Madison).

This Christian film is trying to be a Disney TV musical. It's not the worst idea but the first half is a dud. The lead kid is written as a prankster troublemaker but he's played like a lightweight. At most, he's lying to get the girl. He doesn't even try to run away as his first move. He's bland until the second half. Along with the movie in general, it gets better in the second half. The first half is a boring version of High School Musical. Will and Avery don't even get a good meet-cute. Their first meeting is a perfunctory love-at-first-sight moment which turns immediately to a big musical. It's a meet-perfunctory. It's not until 45 minutes when the couple has a good one-on-one heart-to-heart. From that moment on, the movie improves markedly. They even have their first good song by the campfire and they let their God flag fly. It's like the movie decides to land all the big punches at once. If Will is more of a brigand earlier, his character could have a bigger arc. If the Christianity gets let loose sooner, it could set up the internal religious conflict better. If Will and Avery have more moments quicker, they could have more punch in their emotional drama. Bailee Madison could eat up those Emmy moments if she's released. The first half is a missed opportunity.

I liked this film. It was lighthearted and upbeat. Its not a cinematic masterpiece but it is something fun to do for 1.5 hrs. The plot most falls flat except when Bailee Madison and Kevin Quinn have scenes together. However, I really like the music. I know a lot of it is revamped songs that already exist but the originals they did have were pretty good and I like the songs they used from other artists. The soundtrack overall is very very catchy. This movie is not awesome but definitely good for what it is.

Also, I have seen a number of review that are annoyed that there was no warning that it is a Christian film. Well, its not like there is explicit language or something bad so they don't really need a warning but even without one, it is obvious in the first 5 minutes that its a Christian film with worship music. If you don't want to watch it then just turn it off.