I am a masochist.
Jan. 24th, 2011 04:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impyI did something stupid. I already know how dumb it was, there's no need to heap on the shame although I can't really blame you if you go right ahead. I watched Mean Girls 2 last night. I KNOW.
In my very small, very pitiful defense, I watched it because I think Jennifer Stone is adorable. Once it began I realized hey, Alex from PLL was playing the love interest. Huzzah? Strange though that the only person the network promoted was Meaghan Martin from... whatever she's from, but the head bitch was from a Disney show, and JStone is on Wizards of Waverly Place so I was confused as to the marketing behind this. Also, since ABC family was airing it, you'd think they'd flaunt the PLL connection. But I don't think like the powers that be apparently. Although a quick peek at their site does sort of remedy this.
So we'll move on to the movie itself. I was prepared for utter crap. We're talking really bad. My shields were up, Captain! And... it wasn't as bad as I feared. It was just, how to put this delicately, boring. Really, painfully, amazingly boring. All the interesting stuff was shoved to the side in favor of pushing the chick from Camp Rock 2 through her paces. And for what, I ask you. FOR WHAT.
To save you the pain of watching this yourself (unless you too love Jennifer Stone, in which case she's pretty awesome and worth it for that), here's the story. Jo's father does work for Nascar. This means he moves around a lot and Jo seems to switch schools twice a year every year. This involves some painful VO work from MM/Jo and the less we say of this, the better. Anyway, Jo's got her heart set on going to Carnegie Mellon because her mother went there. Her tragically dead mother. WOE. Only thirteen minutes into this thing and we find out that Daddy's not doing so well financially and thus will be unable to pay her tuition. And this scene might have been more touching only it's thirteen minutes in and the first three involved someone's father throwing (almost literally) four grand at her, so for a second you might believe this movie is untouched by the recession. Y'know, until it needs to play Jo as the poor tough girl on a vespa. *grinds teeth*
Patience, I told myself. You knew it was going to be bad.
So... I think we've met Abby at this point, but since I skipped past it, you have to backtrack with me. Abby is the girl the Plastics (yeah, you can't have HS without them) pick on. Thing is, she's not what you'd expect. The reason the Plastics, led by Mandi-with-an-i pick on Abby so much is because Abby is just as rich (if not more so) as Mandi and without trying, she gets everything Mandi wants. At least the stuff money can buy. She keeps inadvertently topping Mandi which means Mandi feels the need to constantly bring Abby down. (Really, the girl spends 90% of the movie with her hair in need of a serious brushing. How much further down do you lot need to take her?) Jo witnesses this firsthand on day one. But short of speaking to Abby, she doesn't do much to stop anything going on.
Day 2. Because the plastics led to poor Abby doing something to her ankle, Abby gets a better parking spot. Mandi declares war, part two and has Abby's car paintballed. For reasons that I do not understand, Abby accepts a ride home on Jo's vespa. What, your car is going to be safer in the school lot? I think not. Anyway, Abby's father tries to buy Jo's friendship for Abby.
Jo says no, Mr. Abby's father offers to pay for Jo's tuition, Jo agrees. Immediately your brain fast forwards to the moment Abby finds out, right? Yeah. No real surprises with that, btw.
Jo goes about trying to befriend Abby and for three seconds or so it's adorable. But then Mandi turns her evil gaze upon Jo (how dare she pick Abby over the more socially acceptable Mandi?) and... the story becomes all about Jo versus Mandi. Which isn't nearly as fun as you'd think it would be. Sugar sabotage involving a car, stealing $6,800, and an unfortunate butterfly tattoo all fail to generate any real interest. Sigh. I don't know whether the movie is better without whatever edits ABC Family did to it, but as it aired, it was a bit like someone had the framework for the story but didn't realize you had to do more to connect things than just jump from scene to scene. Also, you should care about your characters and for the most part, I didn't. I wanted Jo to get hit by a bus when I cared at all, and I found just about everyone else other than Mandi's boyfriend more interesting. As for the devil herself, Mandi lacked any reason for me to care for her evil ways.
So my brain immediately wondered if the movie would have been any better if they'd gone more predictable and had Abby fall for Mandi's stepbrother.
The one thing that actually surprised me and was pretty nifty was Quinn, the third Anti-Plastic, selling Abby out without a thought until much, much later... when she, for whatever reason, tries to salvage things for Jo and Abby after The Truth is revealed.
Anyone else who suffered through this, can you tell me exactly what the fuck the point of the football game was, other than forcing the quote There are no nunchucks in football?
In my very small, very pitiful defense, I watched it because I think Jennifer Stone is adorable. Once it began I realized hey, Alex from PLL was playing the love interest. Huzzah? Strange though that the only person the network promoted was Meaghan Martin from... whatever she's from, but the head bitch was from a Disney show, and JStone is on Wizards of Waverly Place so I was confused as to the marketing behind this. Also, since ABC family was airing it, you'd think they'd flaunt the PLL connection. But I don't think like the powers that be apparently. Although a quick peek at their site does sort of remedy this.
So we'll move on to the movie itself. I was prepared for utter crap. We're talking really bad. My shields were up, Captain! And... it wasn't as bad as I feared. It was just, how to put this delicately, boring. Really, painfully, amazingly boring. All the interesting stuff was shoved to the side in favor of pushing the chick from Camp Rock 2 through her paces. And for what, I ask you. FOR WHAT.
To save you the pain of watching this yourself (unless you too love Jennifer Stone, in which case she's pretty awesome and worth it for that), here's the story. Jo's father does work for Nascar. This means he moves around a lot and Jo seems to switch schools twice a year every year. This involves some painful VO work from MM/Jo and the less we say of this, the better. Anyway, Jo's got her heart set on going to Carnegie Mellon because her mother went there. Her tragically dead mother. WOE. Only thirteen minutes into this thing and we find out that Daddy's not doing so well financially and thus will be unable to pay her tuition. And this scene might have been more touching only it's thirteen minutes in and the first three involved someone's father throwing (almost literally) four grand at her, so for a second you might believe this movie is untouched by the recession. Y'know, until it needs to play Jo as the poor tough girl on a vespa. *grinds teeth*
Patience, I told myself. You knew it was going to be bad.
So... I think we've met Abby at this point, but since I skipped past it, you have to backtrack with me. Abby is the girl the Plastics (yeah, you can't have HS without them) pick on. Thing is, she's not what you'd expect. The reason the Plastics, led by Mandi-with-an-i pick on Abby so much is because Abby is just as rich (if not more so) as Mandi and without trying, she gets everything Mandi wants. At least the stuff money can buy. She keeps inadvertently topping Mandi which means Mandi feels the need to constantly bring Abby down. (Really, the girl spends 90% of the movie with her hair in need of a serious brushing. How much further down do you lot need to take her?) Jo witnesses this firsthand on day one. But short of speaking to Abby, she doesn't do much to stop anything going on.
Day 2. Because the plastics led to poor Abby doing something to her ankle, Abby gets a better parking spot. Mandi declares war, part two and has Abby's car paintballed. For reasons that I do not understand, Abby accepts a ride home on Jo's vespa. What, your car is going to be safer in the school lot? I think not. Anyway, Abby's father tries to buy Jo's friendship for Abby.
Jo says no, Mr. Abby's father offers to pay for Jo's tuition, Jo agrees. Immediately your brain fast forwards to the moment Abby finds out, right? Yeah. No real surprises with that, btw.
Jo goes about trying to befriend Abby and for three seconds or so it's adorable. But then Mandi turns her evil gaze upon Jo (how dare she pick Abby over the more socially acceptable Mandi?) and... the story becomes all about Jo versus Mandi. Which isn't nearly as fun as you'd think it would be. Sugar sabotage involving a car, stealing $6,800, and an unfortunate butterfly tattoo all fail to generate any real interest. Sigh. I don't know whether the movie is better without whatever edits ABC Family did to it, but as it aired, it was a bit like someone had the framework for the story but didn't realize you had to do more to connect things than just jump from scene to scene. Also, you should care about your characters and for the most part, I didn't. I wanted Jo to get hit by a bus when I cared at all, and I found just about everyone else other than Mandi's boyfriend more interesting. As for the devil herself, Mandi lacked any reason for me to care for her evil ways.
So my brain immediately wondered if the movie would have been any better if they'd gone more predictable and had Abby fall for Mandi's stepbrother.
The one thing that actually surprised me and was pretty nifty was Quinn, the third Anti-Plastic, selling Abby out without a thought until much, much later... when she, for whatever reason, tries to salvage things for Jo and Abby after The Truth is revealed.
Anyone else who suffered through this, can you tell me exactly what the fuck the point of the football game was, other than forcing the quote There are no nunchucks in football?