We all have that one movie. The movie we adored as children and watched more times than we could count. For me, “Sleepover” was the movie that could always be found in my DVD player during every sleepover with my best friends or my birthday parties in elementary school. For years, I adored everything about the movie. And then, one day ‘Sleepover’ became old news, boring even. And with that, I moved on to many other things, only to rediscover it two weeks ago, waiting patiently for me on my Netflix. Rediscovering old movies you used to love can be fun, but rediscovering Sleepover was less than thrilling. It actually turned out to be more of a snooze.

This coming-of-age story follows Julie, your typical teenage girl, as she navigates the changes that come with transitioning from junior high to high school. On the first night of summer after finishing junior high, Julie and her friends are challenged by the popular girls to a scavenger hunt around town for a list of items. The prize for the winning team? An exclusive fountain- side lunch spot at the high school they will be attending in the fall that could decide the girls’ “high school identity”.  Although the girls are racing against the clock to check each item off their list and get back to the high school parking lot before the popular girls, it seems that they can always make time for a cute boy or two.

Although this movie, directed by Joe Nussbaum (Awkward), had a well-developed plot and was filmed wonderfully using many different and unexpected camera angles, it erred too much on the side of being your typical “cookie cutter” teen movie. The popular girls also vying for the lunch spot were portrayed as they normally are: attractive, toned, wealthy, fashionable, and desirable, with the “jocks” nearly fitting the same mold. On the other hand, the “geeks” of the movie are easy to pick out in stereotypical sweater vests, khakis, and bowties. After countless movies depicting the “populars” speeding around in their fancy cars, average characters acting as the punching bag of society, and the high school dance where the perfect couple gets crowned King and Queen, enough is enough.

Despite the fact that this movie stepped off the beaten path of cliché teen movies through the use of wit and suspense, the incorporation of the predictable Cinderella motif toward the end showed that the movie didn’t stray far enough from the path to stand out or be considered one-of-a-kind.

What really make this movie worthwhile, and helped me overlook even the corniest aspects, was the cast. More than a few famous faces appeared in this film, including Alexa Vega (Spy Kids) who starred as Julie, Jane Lynch (Glee) who played Julie’s overbearing mother, Sara Paxton (Aquamarine) as the popular Staci, Jeff Garlin (Curb Your Enthusiasm) as Julie’s bumbling father, and Steve Carell (The Office) who took on the roll of a nutty “Patrol Tech” officer and antagonist of Julie and her friends, and who provided the majority of movie’s humor.

Even with talented and well-known stars spouting the silly, and even sometimes ridiculous dialogue, it was still cringe-worthy at times. When the teenage girls said, “rank”, “presh”, and  “wicked” every other word in attempt to make the characters feel relatable and seem cool, I felt embarrassed instead of impressed and desperately hoped that us teenage girls don’t actually sound like that when we talk.

Also, the “youthfulness” and the expression of teen angst through the dialogue felt awkward and forced. When the characters exclaimed things like, “Oh for the love of carbs!” I was left shaking my head. This desire for the predominately teenage female audience to identify with the characters of Julie and her friends came on too strong and was presented in an awkward manner. Instead of feeling connected to the characters, I was left confused, trying to figure out how the writing director came up with those supposedly typical teenage lines.

Even though this movie didn’t live up my expectations now as it once did, it still has its redeeming qualities. The plot is not half bad and the star-studded cast executed their roles convincingly, but I was not too keen on the dialogue or the “cookie cutter” aspects thrown in the film that have been used in countless other teen movies, such as the Cinderella motif.

It’s safe to say that this movie is good for an elementary school girl’s sleepover despite the fact that the target audience is teenage girls. As a teenage girl, the movie was cute, but after everything is said and done, this movie was, in main character Julie’s own words, “so predictable it kills me!”