At best, you’ll be disappointed; at worst, you’ll want to blow up a high school.
High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008)
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Reviews Counted:123
Fresh:82
Rotten:41
Average Rating:6/10
Consensus: It won't win many converts, but High School Musical 3 is bright, energetic, and well-crafted.
Theatrical Release:22-10-2008
Synopsis: The first HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL movie to be released straight to the silver screen, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 finds the cast of the beloved earlier installments, all students at East High, dealing with... The first HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL movie to be released straight to the silver screen, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 finds the cast of the beloved earlier installments, all students at East High, dealing with the ups and downs of senior year. While all the characters have their own dilemmas, the central issue, as in past films, is the relationship between sweethearts Troy (Zac Efron), the captain of East High's Wildcats basketball team, and the bookish Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens), who face the possibility of imminent separation when Gabriella gets a chance to attend college early. With this third outing in the wildly popular Disney series, director Kenny Ortega takes full advantage of HSM3's big-screen leap, staging musical numbers that go far beyond the scope of the movie's predecessors (see the lavish "I Want It All" by resident East High diva Sharpay, played by Ashley Tisdale). While the series regulars are in fine form and a few new characters are introduced, the film really belongs to Efron, who gets the most screen time and is clearly on a trajectory for stardom beyond HSM. Rather than hold back their budding leading man, the creators and producers of HSM3 let Efron take the spotlight, much to the movie's advantage. Designed to welcome the few viewers who might be unfamiliar with HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, SENIOR YEAR certainly offers plenty of valedictory excitement, and will leave fans giddy with delight. [More]
Starring: Zac Efron, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel
Starring: Zac Efron, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman, Bart Johnson, Alyson Reed, Olesya Rulin, Chris Warren, Ryne Sanborn, Kaycee Stroh, Matt Prokop, Justin Martin, Jemma McKenzie-Brown
Director: Kenny Ortega
Director: Kenny Ortega
Screenwriter: Peter Barsocchini
Producer: William R. Borden, Barry Rosenbush
Composer: David Lawrence
Studio: Walt Disney Pictures
Reviews for High School Musical 3: Senior Year
It has all the exquisite tension of dithering over whether to have the cake or the ice cream.
As far as slickly produced and joyfully energetic escapism goes, High School Musical 3 is top of the class.
High School Musical 3: Senior Year makes cellophane taste like chicken jalfrezi.
Refitted for the big screen, it becomes an eerily plastic business, like a blown-up doll's house.
Colourful, fizzy and destined to keep the karaoke busy for a few months, the ten musical e-numbers pop between the eyes like wads of overblown bubblegum. Would that they stick in the memory in the same way…
Then there’s the sheer volume, colour and stage-brat exuberance that breezes the wispy plot (will the last spring musical come together?) from one forgettable hi-energy dance number to the next.
Yes, it’s like being given a shot in the arm of pure Haribo, while downing Red Bull and being bombarded by images of kittens and rainbows but every once in while we need that.
If you have children, especially girls, they would have dragged you along to see this anyway. The good news is that it's entertaining whatever your age, and far from the commercialised mediocrity I had expected.
If you’re under 12, you won’t be disappointed. If you’re over 12, the fact this is as funny and bright as it is insipid won’t stop you from avoiding it like the plague.
In fact, whether you find it a piece of harmless, escapist fun with a gorgeous cast or two hours of cultural genocide filled with creepy robo-teens will depend on whether you’re under or over 14.
In an increasingly fragile world, High School Musical represents a constant slice of positive energy.
A bit of bloodshed would have enlivened proceedings enormously in the anodyne High School Musical 3.
Just smother yourself in an inch of sunscreen. Undead cynics will be bathed in such a UV dazzling positivity that they risk imploding in their seats.
It's well made and entirely watchable, but it won't really appeal to anyone outside its target audience.
Completely lacking a plot or actual characters, this colourful film is more like a musical revue about a sanitised, fantasy version of high school. It's lively and watchable, but painfully vacuous.
...suffers from precisely the same sort of problems that plagued its two underwhelming predecessors...
Latest News for High School Musical 3: Senior Year
March 04, 2009:
Disney Sets Fourth High School Musical for 2010 ![]()
Disney's "High School Musical" will continue -- on television, and with "a new generation of East High School students," in 2010. More...
February 16, 2009:
RT on DVD: High School Musical 3 or Midnight Meat Train?
It's a good week for mediocre films (Body of Lies, Changeling, Quarantine and Flash of Genius, which all walk a fine line between Fresh and Rotten) and an even better one if... More...
February 15, 2009:
A review-proof, kiddie franchise certain to thrive regardless of what any snooty critics have to say about this installment which seizes on any excuse to have its ensemble break out into a song and dance ala a big Bollywood finale. ![]()
More...
December 17, 2008:
Academy Names 49 Eligible Oscar Songs ![]()
The 49 songs in the running for Oscar nominations have been announced, including 11 tunes from the "High School Musical 3" soundtrack. More...
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