Rating: PG-13
Starring:
Zac Efron as Charlie St. Cloud
Charlie Tahan as Sam St. Cloud
Amanda Crew as Tess Carroll
Augustus Prew as Alistair Wooley
Donal Logue as Tink Weatherbee
Kim Basinger as Claire St. Cloud
Ray Liotta as Florio Ferrente
Dave Franco as Sully
Matt Ward as Connors
Miles Chalmers as Latham
Jesse Wheeler as Green
Desiree Zurowski as Carla Ferrente
Adrian Hough as Ben Carroll
Jill Teed as Grace Carroll
Directed by Burr Steers
Special Features:
Deleted Scenes With Optional Commentary
On Location With Zac Efron
Zac Efron, Leading Man
Feature Commentary With Director Burr Steers
And More!
Other Info:
Widescreen (2.40:1)
DTS-HD MA 5.1
French and Spanish Languages
French and Spanish Subtitles
Running Time: 100 Minutes
The Details:
The following is the official description of the film:
“Zac Efron stars as Charlie St. Cloud, a small-town hero and an accomplished sailor who has it all: the adoration of his mother and younger brother, and a Stanford scholarship. His bright future is cut short when tragedy strikes, taking his dreams with it. Now Charlie is torn between honoring a promise he made years ago and pursuing his newfound love with a former high-school classmate. Based on the acclaimed bestseller, comes a story of hope, second chances and the transformative power of love, also starring Ray Liotta and Academy Award winner Kim Basinger.”
“Charlie St. Cloud” is rated PG-13 for language including some sexual references, an intense accident scene and some sensuality.
Mini-Review:
I have to admit that I had zero interest in watching “Charlie St. Cloud.” I’m not a teenage girl so I wasn’t compelled to watch because of Zac Efron. The trailers did nothing to make me interested and I never read the book that it was based on. As I started watching the movie, I still wasn’t interested. It was not very hard to figure out that one character had a huge target on their back and would be dead within the first 15 minutes of the movie. But then “Charlie St. Cloud” took a big twist into the realm of the supernatural, and suddenly I was hooked. It wasn’t anything original, but it was enough to make me interested in seeing how the movie would play out. In the end “Chalie St. Cloud” was a pleasant though predictable movie.
Zac Efron proves himself to be a more than just a pretty face. He handles drama, humor, and emotional scenes equally well. Give him a better script and I think he could be a pretty good leading man that people other than adolescent girls could enjoy watching. Amanda Crew is also good as Tess Carroll. She’s pretty enough to be a believable match with Efron, yet capable of looking average enough that she’d be overlooked in high school. The two have good chemistry together. Ray Liotta has a small but memorable role as Florio Ferrente. But Kim Basinger is barely in the movie as Claire St. Cloud. She’s in it briefly at the beginning and then never seen again.
Once “Charlie St. Cloud” is over and you start picking apart the plot, things start to have trouble adding up. I can’t get into details here without spoiling it, but a love scene midway through the film has some strange implications once the big twist is revealed. You’ll just have to check it out for yourself.
If you like feel-good movies with supernatural twists, if you’re a Zac Efron fan, or if you read the book then this is a Blu-ray you’re going to want to pick up.
The Blu-ray has a few bonus features included on it. There are some Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary. “On Location With Zac Efron” shows the actor giving a tour of the set. “Zac Efron, Leading Man” features the actor while another featurette discusses the supernatural twist of the film. Finally there’s a Feature Commentary with Director Burr Steers.
