Bad Hair Day

More alphabetical trawling of the Disney Plus app lands me on Disney Channel Original Movie "Bad Hair Day" - which despite the pretty horrible title and poster was actually alright. (relatively speaking).

On the day of prom, technical whizzkid Monica (Laura Marano) discovers that her hair has reacted to the various products she's put in it, her dress has melted, and her shoes have broken. Before she can set about fixing these issues and becoming the prom queen her polling data suggests she'll be - a former police detective, Liz (Leigh-Allyn Baker) knocks on her door and enquires about a piece of costume duty that she owns. Monica agrees to hand over the jewellery, but only if Liz provides her with a lift for the day, to sort out her problems before prom.

So, this is 'alright' in the sense I was anticipating an unwatchable disaster. That it makes sense (kind of) and actually has a story is, in that case, a big plus. It's a slight story admittedly and one that relies on the odd contrivance to get through it, but I've sat through a lot worse. The other thing that makes it watchable is that both the leads are good and that their chemistry together really works. It's a massively familiar relationship, obviously. An unlikely antagonistic relationship, where the pair bond across the day and with a threat to both of them and end up almost as mother and daughter. Their pairing makes it work, I think you could have made exactly the same script with two different actresses and it wouldn't have worked half as well as it does. I also quite liked that Monica was both the preppy prom queen fashionista and a tech nerd with an offer from MIT, whereas previously I suspect many films would have separated them into lead and "friend" roles.

I mean, we're still only talking that it's good relative to other DCOM's that Disney Plus has forced me to watch, not that it's actually good. It's pretty cheap looking and has some questionable acting from some of the supporting cast.

I wouldn't recommend you hunted it down, but if, for some reason, you had to watch an original Disney Channel movie, you can do a lot worse.

It may sound a little misogynistic, but I love little girls' films, female subjects interest me, mother and daughter relationship, here everything is very cute, portrayed in a light, fun and intelligent way... With an investigative, comical, exaggeratedly silly touch, but totally passionate...

DC had been promoting this movie for a long time. Disney movies are often hit or miss and if you are not an eleven year old girl they often are not enjoyable. However, I thought this movie was very good for TV.

The plot was generally believable. The two main characters were well acted and had a great chemistry. The movie was well written and the plot was more solid than most kid movies. Also the villain was believable as a real criminal. The banter between the kid and cop actually was funny and kept me watching a rather formulaic cop/kid movie.

The movie should have ended about five minutes sooner than it did, but it had less of the sappiness that most DCOMs have. The movie reminded me more of the old, old Disney movies from the 60's and 70's such as That Darn Cat, which I think it is a good thing.

Hence, if nothing better is on I would recommend it for watching one of the five hundred times they play it in the next year.

I thought this movie was actually pretty good. The acting was amazing and I enjoyed the storyline. Not much to say about this but pretty good!

Monica (Laura Marano) is a high school senior. She uses social media and her programming skills to be popular in her quest to be prom queen. Her day starts with bad hair after a full day of hair poll. Private investigator Liz (Leigh-Allyn Baker) comes looking for an antique neckless which Monica had bought from a pawn shop. Monica is willing to trade it for a driver.

Neither of the characters are appealing. They try to be a funny duo and sometimes their bickering hits a good spot. The mother daughter bit is kind of funny. I wish for a better setup. With a different premise, this duo could work. It's a slightly above average Disney TV.