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All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review
The Lizzie Mcguire Movie
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  out of 4
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Starring: Hilary Duff, Adam Lamberg Director: Jim Fall
Rated: PG RunTime: 90 Minutes Release Date: May 2003 Genres: Comedy, Kids |
| *Also starring: | Jake Thomas, Brendan Kelly, Carly Schroeder, Yani Gellman, Hallie Todd, Clayton Snyder, Robert Carradine, Ashlie Brillault, Alex Borstein |
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 Review by Susan Granger 2½ stars out of 4
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While I must confess to never having seen "The Lizzie Maguire Show" on
the Disney Channel, I vividly remember graduating from middle school and, like
Lizzie, desperately wanting to press the "reset" button on my life. 15 year-old
Lizzie (Hilary Duff) is not only insecure but a ditsy klutz whose ineptitude
turns her eighth-grade graduation ceremony into a humiliating debacle. Then
she's off on a madcap school-sponsored trip to Rome, where she's mistaken for
Isabella, a temperamental Italian pop star. The resemblance is so uncanny that
suave, Armani-clad Paolo (Yani Gellman), Isabella's ex-partner, sets off in hot
pursuit on his Vespa, much to the distress of Lizzie's longtime pal Gordo (Adam
Lamberg). Paolo finds Lizzie cute and charming so, of course, she agrees to
impersonate Isabella and live out her ultra-cool diva fantasies, complete with
fabulous, far-out clothes (credit costumer David Robinson).
Playing the dual roles of Lizzie and Isabella, bubbly, blonde Hilary
Duff is adorable, if not completely believable, bopping around in a brunette wig
and talking with an awkward accent. Except for scene-stealing Alex Borstein (MAD
TV") as Mrs. Ungermeyer, the tenacious chaperone, all of the other actors merely
skim the surface of their superficial characters. Nevertheless, I fondly
remember the benign, formulaic "Gidget" films of my youth and this refreshingly
wholesome drivel, directed by Jim Fall, fills much the same societal niche -
with travelogue nods to "Three Coins in the Fountain" and "Roman Holiday." On
the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "The Lizzie McGuire Movie" is a silly,
sudsy, sweet 6 - but if you're nine to 14 years old (i.e.: really into Lizzie
and her animated alter-ego), you're gonna love it.
Copyright © 2003 Susan Granger
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