Review of Gallavants

I recall feeling nostalgic about this movie when I was a kid, but upon rewatching it recently, I realize my childhood fondness was completely misguided. The songs are poorly written and are so tediously frequent that one comes along quite literally every two minutes, effectively derailing what little plot there is. The characters are weak and one- dimensional, the story is a dull, disjointed mess, and the pacing is clunky and unfocused (for example, the entire first half of the film meanders from unrelated scene to unrelated scene, containing absolutely nothing to drive the plot forward).

The most egregious offense however is the main character, Shando. He starts out as an obnoxious, immature, lazy, selfish good-for-nothing and changes very little by the end. In fact, he is so unlikable that when the central conflict finally arrives an entire hour in, it's impossible to feel any sympathy for him whatsoever. Add to that a trio of ineffective villains competing to see which is more pointless than the next, roadblocks that pop up only to immediately resolve themselves, and an abrupt, nonsensical conclusion, and you have yourself a 90-minute endurance test that'll have you itching to focus a magnifying glass over every last anthill within a five mile radius.

Do yourself and your children a favor, and skip this one.