IF Laurence Olivier is the undisputed king of Shakespearean drama, then Hilary Duff is the reigning princess of romantic comedy.

In A Cinderella Story teen queen Hilary stars as a downtrodden stepdaughter alongside pretty boy Chad Michael Murray.

Picture the scene: the clock is about to strike midnight and Cinders must leave Prince Charming before her magic disguise disappears. She runs away from the castle, but in her haste drops ... a mobile phone.

And this is just one of the ill-conceived embellishments in this hammed-up update of the timeless fairytale set in contemporary California.

The result is pretty much a pumpkin, though fans of squeaky-clean Duff might fall under its sickly sweet spell.

Orphaned at an early age, Sam Montgomery (Duff) is forced to live with her wicked, Botox-fixated stepmother, (Jennifer Coolidge), who reworks her role as Stifler's mom in American Pie yet again.

Sam lives in a different world to Austin Ames (Murray), the school's all American football star. But what she doesn't realise is that Austin and the secret pen-pal she's been flirting with online are one and the same. Until, that is, he asks her to be his date at the annual Halloween Ball.

Although the plot is insultingly stupid, I just couldn't help love the ridiculous characters and slushy story.

Rebecca Kelly