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Aquamarine

2/10

Stars: Emma Roberts, Joanna 'JoJo' Levesque, Sara Paxton, Jake McDorman, Claudia Karvan, Bruce Spence

Director: Elizabeth Allen

Here's a film that only sub-teen girls could love. Two 14-year-old friends (Roberts - niece of Julia - and Levesque) find a mermaid (Paxton) washed into their local pool by a massive wave, and introduce her to the beach society. Yecch!

In spite of attempts to make jokes on the theme - the mermaid's favourite curse-word is 'Bullshark!', she has a 'shellphone' and tells people 'You scared the salt out of me' - this is agony to sit through for most of the running time, and only fractionally improved by an an almost absurdly touching farewell scene at the end.

As the girls try to match the mermaid with the hunky lifeguard (McDorman) they also fancy, the dialogue remains crass throughout - 'She's a fictional sea creature; she could be bad' Levesque warns Roberts. But the two teen leads, actress-singers both (as is Paxton), look talented enough to move on to better things. Look on the bright side girls - it can't get much worse than this.

David Quinlan

USA/Australia 2006. UK Distributor: 20th Century Fox. Colour by Atlab.
103 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: PG.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 09 Jul 2006