For a movie close to home and with girls near my age group I expected there to be characters I could relate too and characters I can practically replace the names of the people with people I knew. That wasn't the case. These girls are probably the most stereotypical stock teenagers I've seen in any movie. All of which have some sort of quality making them blend in, none standing out. Thats not a horrible thing, but the only girl I found I was making connection to was Mary Ann Spier (Rachel Leigh Cook). She was a shy, good listening, and sensitive girl. One I could really see myself relating and hanging out with. Pretty much the good girl, stays out of trouble and popularity, is herself and nothing more. I look for that.

With The Babysitters Club though, its exactly what you expect. About twenty minutes in this movie, I took out a voice recorder (compliments to the Motorola Droid) and recording my audio saying what I believed will happen event to event. I was right. Pretty much down to the sentence accurate with the movie. Its cliché beyond belief. Nothing unique, nothing is colored outside of the lines. "The story you expect from a group of adolescent girls" should be the title.

The plot is about a girl named Kristie a thirteen year old tomboyish girl who is the founding member of "The Babysitters Club" a club where girls...babysit. The Babysitters Club consists of Her, Mary Anne Spier, Dawn Schafer, Claudia Kishi, Stacey McGill, Mallory Pike, and Jessica Ramsey. Some girls don't get more than ten lines in the film (Mallory and Jessica mainly). The girls open a day-care in Kristie's backyard where they handle dozens of kids and try to keep them in control. They face numerous problems like the kids being a hazard to the neighbor ladies garden, them attracting a group of girls who are out to destroy the club, and Kristie facing troubles when her biological father returns to her side making her keep the secret he's back from her friends and her mother, causing Kristie more stress that is showing on the club and her life all around.

The movie is cliché, beyond cliché, non-realistic. Its a movie where everything is resolved the easy way out. If my folks were divorced and my dad told me not to tell my mom he's back you damn well better not trust me. Then the mom doesn't seem mad or concerned when her child is acting as strangely as possible. If my mom saw me behaving like that, she'd lock me in her room and make me fess up. Realistic situations, handled unrealistically.

I also would like to say for a movie to be called The Babysitters Club. There's more day-care action then babysitting which is bizarre. Its a coming of age film that is clearly just riding off the book series' popularity by using the title and characters. There are no scenes of babysitting at all, just some day-care shots then the rest of the points are dedicated to Kristie's personal life and other issues involving the character's life.

So much could have been done with this. It could have been extended with some babysitting scenes gone wrong. Get more into the characters, from what I hear they were extremely built on character development. So one 94 minute movie based on various books doesn't cut it. Especially when the main point, BABYSITTING, is completely abandoned. Still a fair kids movie, but not much of a movie itself. The Babysitters Club will amuse kids from age eight to twelve, but most likely bore kids older. But if you understand the difficult times when adolescents are put under pressure, this will show it in good context.

Starring: Schuyler Fisk, Bre Blair, Rachael Leigh Cook, Larisa Oleynik, Stacy Linn Ramsower, and Zelda Harris. Directed by: Melanie Mayron.

My only knowledge of "The Baby-Sitters Club" book series was that I used to see it in the Scholastic ads when I was a kid. I have no idea how faithful this movie is to the books. I gotta admit I found myself mocking a lot of this movie, as it is definitely made from corn. But I remind myself that I am not part of the demographic this was made for and try to be fair. If you can suppress your grown-up cynicism for awhile, it's actually pretty cute. The girls are all fun to watch and seem to enjoy being in the movie. Marla Sokoloff is a great little villainess. Rachel Leigh Cook would go on to be the most famous of any of the Club girls. She's "all that" here, too.

Some of the girls have little subplots. One girl has boy problems with the kid from Last Action Hero. The lead girl has daddy issues due to her absentee father showing back up. Another girl has diabetes and talks about it like it's leprosy and she's deathly afraid of telling her new Swiss boyfriend about it. He's a dork, by the way. But my favorite is the girl who is worried about flunking summer school and whines about it every chance she gets. Her friends reassure her that they will help her study and everything will be fine. This leads to the movie's highlight, a hilarious scene where the girls perform the most epic rap song ever to help her. It has to be seen to be believed.

I found myself liking this movie more as it went on. It's easy to dismiss it as fluff, and I guess it is, but it's enjoyable fluff. The actors, young and old, are decent. The direction is a little flat and the whole thing kind of looks like a made-for-TV movie but I liked it anyway. I think little kids might like it most or perhaps people who grew up in the '90s and are nostalgic about it.

Kristy Thomas (Schuyler Fisk) is the founding member of The Baby-Sitters Club with her six friends. Stacey McGill (Bre Blair) is a former NYC girl who falls for older boy Luca and has medical issues. Mary Anne Spier (Rachael Leigh Cook) is the quiet best friend. Dawn Schafer (Larisa Oleynik) is a Californian environmentalist. Claudia Kishi (Tricia Joe) is handy. Mallory Pike (Stacy Linn Ramsower) is the writer. Jessi Ramsey (Zelda Harris) is a dancer. With their busy summer babysitting season coming, Kristy decides to keep everybody together by opening a backyard summer camp. The girls face family issues, boy issues, summer school, and an annoyed neighbor about the ruckus.

This is a fine tween girls film with a few notable young actresses. Their relationships are appealing although there is too much personal drama going on. It's a bit overstuffed. It should have stayed only with the summer camp more than the personal melodrama. This is good for little girls but unlikely to work outside of its intended target audience.