The Challenge

1st watched 5/13/2023 - (Dir-Craig Shapiro): Mostly lame, although watch-able near the end in this Mary Kate & Ashley late offering for the twins. They kind of follow the pattern of the Disney film "The Parent Trap" in this one as sisters from across the continent living with divorced mom and dad meet un-expectantly by both applying to be in the reality game show called "The Challenge." Thru a marketing gimmick, the producers decide it would be good for ratings for both to be on the program, and in a weird twist - are also put on the same team. They haven't seen each other for 4 years and don't like each other at all. The producers figure the conflict will bring up ratings. This conflict initially make's their team not do well, but after each challenge - they start learning from each other and start connecting again and the team flourishes. There are the typical romantic things happening - with a nice montage at the end bringing back boyfriends from other movies - making me wonder if this is their last. Also - the tension of the last challenge with Mary Kate & Ashley facing their biggest fears brings the movie out of the "really bad" to "ok" fare. There is never much deep in any of these movies - which is expected, but they definetly have appealed to some to last this long. Not for me, though - and I'm probably not the target audience, either.

How amazing is this film??? Yet another classic from the Olsen twins (who never get old!) We've grown up with them, all the way from when they played baby Michelle on Full House. In this film we see them acting very mature in order to win a college scholarship. The Challenge fully demonstrates the teamwork that can be achieved even when people hate each other. It is also a summary of how much sisters really do mean to one another. A bit of a cheesy ending, with Mary-Kate and Ashley walking off saying "we will always have each other" to be followed by clips of them throughout their careers. But all in all, a brilliant display!!!

As far as Olsen movies go, this one is pretty good. It has a plot, and is actually watchable. Mary-Kate and Ashley have always been bad actors, and they haven't improved at all here, and once again they are practically playing themselves, but this is just a straight to video release and in that respect, it's just decent. And whereas most Olsen movies are basically an archive of them having fun, I think there was only ONE Olsens-having-fun moment in here.

To be critical, the acting is crap, the love interests aren't at all cute, and some of the supporting cast are pretty annoying, especially the girl who plays to win. It's a good movie for the Olsens, but it is unfortunately let down by a "twist" ending which is totally crap, ridiculous, and completely big headed on the Olsens part. Fortunatly, this marked the end of the Olsens' run of videos, and thats probably why they set out to try and make it half decent.

To praise the movie, it is watchable, and it's one of the Olsen movies where they don't come across as annoying (at least they aren't annoying, until the, as Mary-Kate called it, "cool surprise"). That cool surprise isn't cool at all. It's pretty big headed.

Ultimately, it's worth a look in.

As with all of my other Olsen Twins movies, I rate this against their other movies, not against the standard world of Hollywood movies. Hence the ten rating.

This movie is probably the most entertaining and sensible of the Olsen Twins movies. Even my younger brothers, who were nineteen when they watched this, enjoyed this movie. There is actually a plot and the girls have distinguished characters for once. In most of their other movies, they're basically the same person. The Mexican scenery is beautiful. The collage at the end is a nice treat for fans of their movies. This is definitely one of their movies that would be tolerable to non-fans. If you liked the comedy in this one, I'd recommend "Our Lips Are Sealed." If you liked the distinct characterization, I'd recommend "Winning London." If you liked the tropical scenery, I'd recommend "Holiday in the Sun."

I liked this but it's not a favourite of the Olsen films. I found it slightly depressing that the sisters hated each other, I much prefered the films where they're basically like the same person. Also the theme tune to the game show constantly getting played sounded so irritating. The supporting cast was great, much better than most of the other films.