'MIDNIGHT SUN': Three Stars (Out of Five)
A teen romance about a 17-year-old girl with a life threatening sensitivity to sunlight, who has her first romantic relationship with her longtime crush, but she doesn't tell him about her illness. The movie stars Patrick Schwarzenegger (son of the great Arnold Schwarzenegger, in one of his first major starring roles), Bella Thorne and Rob Riggle. It was directed by Scott Speer (who previously helmed the 2012 teen romance dance flick 'STEP UP REVOLUTION'), and it was written by Erik Kirsten (the film is a remake of a 2012 Japanese movie, of the same name). It's received mostly negative reviews from critics, and it's a modest hit at the Box Office. I found it to be mildly affective, but mostly mediocre at best.
Katie Price (Thorne) has had a rare illness since she was a small child, called xeroderma pigmentosum, in which she can be killed by any exposure to sunlight. She has lived most of her life almost entirely indoors, being homeschooled by her loving father (Riggle). Now, as Katie graduates from high school, she begins venturing outside at night to play her guitar. On graduation night she meets her longtime childhood crush, Charlie (Schwarzenegger), who never even knew she existed before that. A romance develops between the two, but Charlie doesn't know anything about Katie's condition.
The film is pretty routinely made, and it's clichéd and pretty cheesy as well at times. It accomplishes what it sets out to do though, and I think it's target audience will be completely satisfied with it. I usually hate these types of movies, but I wanted to see this one just to see Patrick Schwarzenegger in a starring role (I was a huge Arnold Schwarzenegger fan). It's a little weird how much he resembles his father at times, in appearance, but he still acts nothing like him (and of course doesn't have the beloved accent). He's also not nearly as charismatic, or talented (that we can see yet at least), but he does fine in this film. It would be great to see him and Scott Eastwood star in a buddy action flick together, I think. I'm sure it would probably be cheesy, and bad, but also really amusing. Rob Riggle steals this movie though, and it's worth watching if you're a fan of the genre definitely.
