Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience: Glossy and exuberant

With three different Jonas Brothers to choose from, who can possibly have a favourite? If you had to pick, would it be oldest brother Kevin, the rootsy one who prefers to let his guitar do the talking in the Disney boy band's debut concert movie and who's unafraid to show off a little chest hair?

Or would it be youngest brother Nick, who favours dressier attire (to be fair, they've all got great ties) and is more the shy-and-sensitive type?

Or maybe Joe, the flirty showboat who's the first to get his shirt off here, thereby causing the lustiest of the many lusty screams the movie will surely provoke?

Of course, it's okay to like all three in equal amounts. What's more, these wholesome young men make for surprisingly good company in Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience. Though Disney's latest concert flick closely replicates the format of last year's Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour scream-fest, its appeal may actually extend beyond the core demographic of excitable tweens.

For one thing, the songs are better. In the live concert segments that fill up most of the film's wisely modest running time, the Jonas Brothers and their backup band beef up bubblegummy power-pop songs like "Burnin' Up" with a bigger guitar sound and a string section.

For another, it's hard not to relish the pandemonium captured on camera as the boys take Manhattan during a media blitz to promote their latest album last August.

The innumerable shots of young fans screaming, weeping, fainting and hyperventilating would be reminiscent of A Hard Day's Night even if the Beatles' first movie wasn't explicitly evoked in this one's cheeky pre-credits sequence. (Given that we get to see the brothers escaping by helicopter from a frenzied mob as if they were fleeing Altamont, a better movie title would've been Gimme Jonas.)

Even though the 3D format demands the goofy and gimmicky use of everything from flicked guitar picks to exploding flash pots, the most effective weapon in the Jonas arsenal is their own showmanship. They're able, energetic performers who clearly enjoy themselves onstage. That much is made obvious during Disney stablemate Demi Lovato's brief appearance, which comes off as stiff next to the headliners' ease and exuberance.

Country-pop phenom Taylor Swift fares better with her hit "Should've Said No," recorded before she split up with Joe. (The guys' much-discussed purity rings are safe for now, though Freud would have had a field day with this show's most bizarre bit of stagecraft, when the Jonas Brothers use firehoses to spray the audience with white foam.)

All this is enough to make for a concert film that's not only livelier than Miley Cyrus' outing, but recent efforts by U2 and the Rolling Stones – U23D and Shine a Light – may have been far more prestigious than this glossy Disney product, but they were much stodgier, too.

Love them or loathe them, it's the Jonas Brothers' moment – you might as well enjoy it.


http://www.thestar.com/Entertainment/article/593817