One Direction:
This Is Us

One Direction: This Is Us hardly is a documentary or even a concert film. It’s a 90-minute commercial for One Direction desperately trying to convince us that the guys are mischievous scamps who care about their fans and love their mommies. Oooooh. Very deep.

What makes it so ironic is how every member of this group wants to convince us throughout the movie that the audience is getting some sort of uncensored, “real”, behind-the-scenes look at the guys proving they are just too cool for their own commercialization, but the movie could not be more manufactured and phony than if it had a Made in China sticker on it. It all smacks of scripted zaniness featuring some floppy haired rapscallions who make all of the underage girls coo. The Beatles did it first, and better.

According to One Direction: This Is Us, these guys don’t hang out at clubs and date famous starlets like we have seen time and time again on TMZ (and in Taylor Swift songs and performances). No! They go camping and fishing in their down time (when they aren’t telling their fans how much they care about them).

Sadly, they are trying so hard to be original and different and not some manufactured boy band that they prove to be exactly that to anyone who isn’t predisposed to swooning as soon as Harry rips off his shirt or pants (still not impressive, even in 3D).

I don’t know what made me cry more, listening to them cover a classic song from Blondie, a cameo appearance from Martin Scorsese or witnessing Simon Cowell in all of his 3-D glory.

One Direction: This Is Us is rated PG for mild language.