Publisher: CinemaSerf December 9, 2023
It's final year at High School and "Troy" (Zac Efron) and "Gabriella" (Vanessa Hudgens) are a definite item together. Don't worry - the hormones have all been suitably Disneyfied so there's nothing beyond the briefest peck on the cheek as they cheese their way through the start of this final term before, yep, nemesis "Sharpay" (Ashley Tisdale) starts stirring again. They all have to face the prospect of post-graduation life and that means that they might not remain together. When "Gabriella" is accepted at Stanford university - quite a distance away from "Troy" who wants to continue to play basketball at the University of Albuquerque - the pair have to deal with the thought of a long-distance relationship and all the precariousness that entails. Meantime, there is trouble in the "Evans" camp as "Sharpay" and long suffering brother "Ryan" (Lucas Grabeel) have a parting of the ways. She sees solo stardom looming and he has other, more collegiate, plans. The story advances using some rather unmemorable songs and dances towards a conclusion that is actually quite funny, but only because there are a few just desserts dished out that have been a long time coming. There's much more of the savvily enthusiastic teacher "Ms. Darbus" (Alyson Reed) to return this more to the academic environment but by now I'd had enough of these precociously annoying youngsters and their increasingly unimaginative characterisations. At least, this time, the talented Grabeel gets a bit more of the spotlight but it lacks a hit song and without it, is all just sort of dwindles away.