All Rise...

Judge David Johnson's is a charming geek.

The Charge

Makeovers that really matter.

The Case

The most popular girl in school is Dylan (Sarah Hyland, Modern Family), someone who has to grapple with a) having a boy's name, and b) looking like a 12 year-old. Yet she perseveres and carves out a perfectly acceptable caricature of a vapid high school diva.

On the other end of the social spectrum is Josh (Matt Prokop), an alleged "geek" who combines a love of filmmaking with a healthy skepticism of combs. He and Dylan collide, when he convinces her to be the subject of his documentary on popularity.

For some reason she agrees to this, even though it will no doubt lead to crushing public humiliation. Thus a journey of mutual self-discovery and stereotype-busting is embarked upon.

What we have here in Geek Charming is a perfectly bland, cookie-cutter teen fairy tale that is as predictable as it is unrealistic. I understand that some high school popular girls could be oblivious, but they're at least self-aware. They have to be! But Dylan taking part in this documentary—the bedrock on which the entire plot rests—makes zero sense. She knows Josh has little use for her and her popular brethren, and yet she allows herself to be followed around with a camera?

Bah. I'm dwelling way too long on something the writers obviously didn't think much about. Geek Charming is designed to be a breezy, empty-calorie confection for the Disney Channel crowd. Nothing surprising happens (if you think there's a question these two polar opposites will end up together, the disc case designers squash that suspense with a nice photo of the duo posing for a prom shot) and plot points unfurl pretty much how you'd expect. Also, I thought Sarah Hyland looked way too young for the role, but apparently she's 21 in real life!

The DVD: 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, Dolby 2.0 stereo, and 10 episodes of Shake It Up (spread over two discs), the latest Disney cash-cow about precocious adolescents singing bubblegum pop songs.

The Verdict

The movie is dull and creatively bankrupt, but the moral is good enough and there are no F-bombs. Slap on the wrist.

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