The Princess Diaries Reviews

I really liked this. Loosely based on the books by Meg Cabot, Princess Diaries is a charming, if somewhat uneven film, though it does boast a spirited and lovely-looking Anne Hathaway in the title role. Though the film does belong to Julie Andrews as her grandmother, the wonderful actress who brought us classics such as Mary Poppins and Sound of Music. Hector Elizondo is also fun as Joe. The film has some lovely locations and costumes, and the two actresses are well supported by some very talented co-stars, such as the lady who played the bitchy Lana. The film also has a feel-good nature about it, that just adds to the film's appeal. However, the film isn't without its flaws. The story had an oft-tendency to become predictable, and the script while very funny on the most part, had some clichés here and there. There were some scenes that were a little, and that word I am putting a lot of emphasis on, slow and could have been developed a little more. On the whole, and I genuinely mean this, a charming, likable, if not entirely successful film. 7.5/10 Bethany Cox.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this flick but since it featured Anne Hathaway's breakthrough début performance, I thought I should give it a try. Eventually, for a rather typical Disney feature, I thought it was not that bad after all. Indeed, Anne Hathaway and Julie Christie were both really charming and they provided some decent performances. Of course, the story was rather pedestrian and completely predictable but, even though it follows a well-known formula (the ugly loser chick becomes a gorgeous princess...), it did it really well and, as a result, I was rather entertained throughout the whole thing. Concerning Anne Hathaway, even though you might not like her (myself, I’m not a huge fan), you can’t deny that her career has been pretty impressive so far starting with a Disney feature to her first Academy award recently with ‘The Misérables’ and with some nice roles in between like Selina Kyle in the last Batman flick. To conclude, it is nothing mind-blowing whatsoever but, in this genre, it is actually not bad at all and I guess it is worth a look, especially if you are a fan of Anne Hathaway.