One Direction: This is Us
A made-for-public-consumption PR piece, "One Direction: This is Us" is, for me, neither good nor bad — a movie that is certainly not made for me but does its job very well.
"This is Us" follows the boy band through a concert tour, mixing 3D-enhanced concert footage with shots of the guys doing the sorts of things that endear them to their target demographic teenage girls, things like playing soccer football (they're British) in the empty arena, doing photo shoots and meeting their fans on the street in disguise, then surprising them by revealing their true identities.
The film does go through a short bit of footage detailing their background that is pretty interesting. The five were all contestants on Simon Cowell's singing show "The X-Factor," and while they didn't make it individually, Cowell saw enough in the five of them to match them together and make them the coolest boy ensemble since, like ever. You see Cowell in a few snippets and as he prepares them for their tour, then he disappears to embark on other moneymaking ventures give them the spotlight.
For much of the film, the 3D is largely wasted, until a concert segment around the movie's midpoint makes heavy use of computer graphics. It's not top-notch gimmickry, but it at least for a few moments doesn't make you sorry you're wearing the glasses.
Directed by Morgan Spurlock, chasing a paycheck after his own ventures like "Super Size Me" and "Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?," we get a decent-enough picture of who these guys are as band members and cogs in a PR machine.
For fans of similar films featuring Justin Beiber and Katy Perry, this will be a similar squeal-inducing affair. For parents who aren't fans, the movie will range anywhere from more fun than you thought to groan-inducingly bad. I'll admit a few times to being both entertained and bored to tears (as my daughter, Jenna, said, at a couple of points, I was "resting my eyes").
Because I fall outside of the target demographic of the film, here is a review of the film from someone for whom this film was made: