the new mean girls is really bad, you guys
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 พ.ค. 2024
- in which Max loses his mind about a movie adaptation of a musical adaptation of one of his favorite movies.
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Music by me or my Casio CTK-496 except “We Will All Go Together When We Go” written and performed by Tom Lehrer. Also "The Girl from Ipanema" by Antônio Carlos Jobim performed by myself.
That one Variety article: variety.com/2024/film/feature...
Chapters:
0:00 Really bad
3:06 The advertising
7:25 Punching down
16:27 Cast a movie musical challenge (impossible)
26:04 The music
39:04 Remember this?
43:21 Good moments
45:45 Regina George
57:54 Every character is worse
1:09:28 Why, why, why?
1:12:01 The war on movie musicals
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"acted nice when she not nice" sounds like a lyric drew gooden would write as a joke
is that an ACTUAL lyric ?????
@@wheelieslunchbox YES
Yes!! Thats literally how he would say it!!
@@wheelieslunchbox as someone who was a spot light for the musical...yes.
am I the only one who doesn't have a problem with that lyric? the she not nice is specifically sung with a sarcastic inflection which is why it is that way
Imagine saying "he's just kind of there" about your own damn character 💀
That’s what a writer would say about a very minor character. But an actor to their character. Very NPC vibes.
@@ChillHills "very NPC vibes" what a thing to say lmao
@@camisafespace certainly a thing
I don't understand why Regina basically got... sanitized. Like now they feel like she has to be likable and unproblematic. Isn't that the point?? For her to be, well, *mean*????
like she’s meant to be a villain!! & the janice plot is relatable. i was called a lesbian in school too, so homophobia quickly led to being a social outcast. i was sad that part of the story was sanitised
Right, and we as the audience, actually like her like that because we appreciate the realistic portrayal way more.
I literally saw a thumbnail of a video that described the remake as "Mean Girls Without The Mean", and honestly, that's just really accurate.
To be fair, I think a lot of people miss that Regina and the plastics are the antagonists, but the original movie makes a pretty strong case that mean girls refers to basically all the girls at the school, even Cady
@@gameb9oy They're still antagonists. They're shitty people
I swear if they said socially unaliving it would be funnier than socially ruinous 😭😭
reaaal😭
I saw a review on Letterboxd under this movie that simply just said "Shein Girls."
Perfectly summarized how I feel about this movie.
STOP I SAW THAT TOO
That perfectly encapsulates the movie, nothing else will come closer 😭
Too real
@@dodgethunderstorm8524lol same
The people who made the movie said in an interview they sourced most of the wardrobe from tiktok shop and instagram bc that’s where gen z shops so this is literally true lol
The new movie seems like it’s really, _really_ scared of coming across as “problematic” even when the problematic aspects are the point.
Same thing as the avatar live action
Yeah, the plastics say mean, problematic things because they’re not nice people! I feel like the writers of the new movie saw people saying that Regina is iconic and thought they meant that she’s mean and they think it’s cool. 😭
Yeah like you're telling me Regina isn't homophobic 💀They could have explored how socially acceptable homophobia has evolved but it is still very much one of the main causes of bullying today
the socially ruinous line is proof of this and it's so bad lmao. Tina fey is too scared of getting cancelled.
I just love how they hamfisted the idea that there is somebody in the school who clearly is interested romantically in Damian, and then they do absolutely nothing with it. They literally just wanted to make sure that he's not just a token gay character but instead has depth as a person, and they did it in the most shameless way possible.
The “acted nice when she not nice” actually doesn’t bother me. But “if you treat me bad l I’ll say YOU’RE BAD” is SO BAD OMG. Also “I will not laugh along with them and approve their palace coup cuz that’s not me.” is bad because…YES IT IS YOU. Janis is a VENGEFUL PERSON. Why all of a sudden does she have a moral high ground??
She is totally acting not nice!
I don't know why they removed the part where Cady reads Janis. Janis tells Cady she's really just a mean girl, Cady tells Janis that it was HER idea, Janis says "at least I KNOW I'm mean," revealing her true nature. That doesn't happen in the musical. It's strange.
@@offbranddorito9668it’s so weird the musical makes everyone the victim, everyone the villain, and none of them did anything wrong ever
@@offbranddorito9668 It happens in the musical, not in this version. The stage musical is really good, this movie is really bad.
TRUE, the 'nice when she not nice' part feels a bit condecending, which is _very_ Janis. But those other lines? Trash. Her character motivations... don't seem to match the song. The song is about rejecting the idea that girls need to always be polite, so their hatred is buried under deception. The singer is supposed to _dislike_ doing that. But Janis DOES do that, Janis ENJOYS doing that, she even does it as much as Regina! It's a good song seperately, but with the context of Janis's character? Nope.
That Stupid With Love remake was unforgivable 💀
Actually
Somehow they pissed off both the movie fans and the musical fans 😭
stupeh wih loe
REAL
Danny Gonzales wrote it. EDIT: ITS A JOKE I DONT THINK HE WROTE IT IT JUST SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING HE WOULD WRITE
"Acting nice when SHENOTNICE" actually had me in tears in the theater... I couldn't stop laughing 😭
Help every time I’ve listened to it I thought it was supposed to be funny 😭
@@alwaysrootingfortheantihero123I think it’s meant to be like mocking how kids speak? The original song she sings it really nasally and different from the rest of what she says so I think that’s what it is
@@millieroberts7015 yeah in the original song she sounds SOOO nasally
@@millieroberts7015Yeah! And something I think he misses in this review is, THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO BE 16!! Imagine how an emotional 16 year old would sing. If life was a musical, I highly doubt they’d be singing high quality stuff. And also, IT’S A PARODY! It’s supposed to be silly and overdramatic sometimes. He brought up sooo many great points but I feel like his dislike of the elements introduced by the original musical are things he would accept and maybe even like if he tried to reason them.
No joke I sat there and reeled in horror at the pure stupidity lol
“deh, cinderella, the prom, cats, what do they have in common?”
me: “JAMES CORDON”
“they’re bad”
me: “eh same thing”
Was he in DEH?
That's exactly what I was thinking lol
I literally said that outloud lol
@@CleverUsername69420 dear evan hansen
@@CleverUsername69420was he??
I hate saying this, but in an effort to not offend anyone, they took all of the meaning out of the movie. Taking away references to weight, slut-shaming, and homophobia, really denies the reality of bullying in high school. Some things they took out (some of the racism, etc) were good choices, but taking out every possibly offensive thing in the movie takes the teeth out of it and undercuts the theme of the whole movie.
Well to put myself in their shoes where do we draw the line between acceptable offensiveness and unacceptable offensiveness? the racism is fine but why not too the homophobia? or the slut-shaming? when you think it like that you understand the over sanitation of this film
Exactly. It's not that the movie can't portray racism either. The problem was that the butt of the joke in the original was the people of colour.
@@g.c.4824 theres a difference between punching up at minorities and punching down, I'm not the best at explaining but there's probably a lot of poc creators that have made videos on this subject
I think the problem is that tina just isn't good at making jokes and statements that involve minorities with out saying something offensive or doing it wrong
Racism exists at schools too but I get what you mean.
Some of these jokes feel like cheating off of an essay online and changing a ton of words with synonyms and hoping no one notices until the whole essay is a convoluted mess.
Seriously! Social su1c1de to “socially ruinous” feels like someone put the joke through a thesaurus 🙄
like, “urinate” ?? cmon man 😞
Can’t believe they made a 2 hour James Somerton video
RIGHT
😂😂😂😂
bedtime just got rescheduled one hour and sixteen minutes later
Lol same
Same-
LOL I felt that
@@victoriabelatti7141I felt that too, and I don't even exclusively date women of color!
so real lmao
that middle schooler calling him fugly was so real
my friend did the same, not using the exact same word, but she said "is he the hot guy they're going to fight for?" and I thought it was hilarious🤣
He is definitely not someone Regina would be interested in dating haha
Fr because where is the lie? 😂
@@michelcomentano it’s true like he’s not it for Arron😂
I hate how tiny his face is
Wouldn't my "mother's mean girls" be idk Heaters?
Yeah I just watched heathers the other day and mean girls got a few ideas from it
I think it’s trying to aim towards genZ, who’s mothers would’ve had mean girls. And then their grandmothers would’ve been heathers
@@someonewhoI’d push it even further to gen alpha at this point, most gen z kids’ parents would have been teens in the 80s/90s
@@scaraptor2106 true true
tbf my mother was young when she had me so she was 20 when Mean Girls came out
My Mum was 22 when Heathers came out lmao, and 37 when Mean Girls came out and I'm in Gen Z (I'm 20). Heathers is my favourite movie ❤
Tina Fey grabbed a thesaurus, pulled the original screenplay up on Microsoft Word, and put that find and replace function to WORK.
This is the most accurate description of the reboot's script I've seen lmao
Facts
The October 3rd joke got dragged into a woodchipper with the choir.
said the talentless netizen who will never be published anywhere
@@geminihexx9858 Damn. If the script of Mean Girls was anywhere as mean as your comment, maybe so many people wouldn't be complaining about the movie.
The implication constantly of doing references back to the original Mean Girls implies that both the original Mean Girls happened canonically and then a movie was made about it. Furthermore, this implies that the characters who would have been the same person as in the original just straight up didn't notice that the bizzare events from years and years ago just happened again, with a bunch of people with identical names.
For some reason I really hate when movies do that because they never do anything creatively meta with the concept of the originals getting older and having the same shit happen to their kids 20 years later, or in the case of the failed Heathers reboot 30.
Like, North Shore should have mental wellness checks or somethin' and Westerberg should have had gun control or at least school security but nope. Same shit.
THISSSS like why wouldn’t have tina fey have been like wtf this is so weird
i just think of those references as being spontaneous in-universe. they’re references for the audience, but not the characters experiencing those things
You dig on multiverses?
cl i kinda just think its not that deep no offence
You've heard of Sassy Black Woman!!! Now welcome the new, BETTER, version!!! Sassy Gay Black Man. Wow so much better!!! And definitely NOT still racist, and now even homophobic!
IKR lmaooo
this got me too 😭 like they tried so hard to sanitize the original and remove the problematic elements and then they fully typecast damien
Seriously I was stunned that they changed the very annoying role of sexualized gay best friend to a combo of that AND the sassy black best friend to be more ‘progressive’ like huh??
he felt so forced like "GUys look im a feminine gay dude! Look im gay and sassy!!"
Ok but to be fair, when Lindsay Lohan showed up on screen in our theatre everyone DID applaud.
@@amazingunreleasedalbums I think she looks great. 🤷
@@xXMilkyMeadowsXxShe does
The movies pacing and acting honestly feels like they were rushed in production it also just felt like a fever dream in theatre 💀
Omg thank you so much for hearting my comment your content is something I always look forward to and appreciate watching as someone in musical theatre and loves pop culture 🫶
i think they only had a few months
Yea but even then it’s like they didn’t put any effort in and the casting was ridiculous
No you hit it on the money. I did BG throughout the production, we started the first full week of March 2023 and went until mid-April. That was it.
@@sunshineeee yikes 😟 they honestly did not care 💀 but that is so cool you were on set ❤️
Fun fact: Middle Schooler Theater Kids do Love “I’m just Ken”
I’m an almost college student who has never touched theater and I love that song!
As a middle schooler theater kid, I can confirm that we do love "I'm Just Ken"
as a freshman theatre kid i can confirm
middle school theater kid here: i'm confirming lollll
as a former theater kid, i also love im just ken o7
I'm so tired of this trend in Hollywood now where, if something is getting a reboot, they'll completely remove anything that is even slightly considered "offensive" or "problematic." Netflix's ATLA and virtually every single Disney live action remake does the same thing too. Especially if it NEEDED to be "problematic" in order to make a point, or if it's important for a character's development arc. Removing characters being sexist or homophobic is not going to stop people from being sexist or homophobic, it's just makes it easier for people to pretend that it doesn't exist anymore.
that's so true. media literacy is so dead now - people don't understand the difference of showing a problematic character _being in the wrong_ vs glorifying or romanticizing problematic behavior
They're not even removing it for the people affected by those issues they're removing them so that other people can ignore that there's a problem instead of addressing it
The Pinocchio remake
my main issue with cadys character is that she just loses all of her dorky fun confidence that she has in the musical, she becomes so BORING
Exactly... like WHY did Aaron like her?? I saw nothing there
@@ashHarmony he didn't even like her it seemed like 😂 in the original they kiss so we can tell there's actually something between them, but in the musical it's like wait why did she even think he liked her?
It didn't help that the actress playing Cady wasn't very good
@@ashHarmony They lowkey looked like siblings too
one of the weirdest things they did was give cady's part in apex predator to damien. what was supposed to be cady weighing the pros and cons of being friends with the plastics vs janis just becomes damien insulting janis right to her face 😭
funny thing is looking back they probably gave him that part so the actor would have a chance to sing, which they would not have had to do if they hadn't cut literally every single song damien sings in 💀💀
Yeah, there's one think to change a song a bit to make it fit in to your movie and I full understand that sometimes it's necessary but the main problem with Damain singing the line " At the watering hole the girls who are not nice have to scater like mice from a jungle cat. Janis is great but she doesn't have that power people generally cower Janis can't do that" is the fact that one: It doesn't make eny sense to character (Damien) two: The whole song is meant to be how Cady is completely and dapeating about her two friends and three: Cady gets no development what so ever (I mean more emotional development I know that she does because a brat but I mean more learning through here mistakes)
The way I visibly withered and turned grey when Max said he was an eighth grader in 2018
He what? *wrinkles into dust*
Pls I finished uni in 2018 💀💀💀
Lol, I was also in eighth grade in 2018. Sorry to make you wither even moreso
I'm glad I wasn't the only one. He talked about a show from SIX YEARS AGO like it was in the foggy mists of the ancient past.
At least three people in his thread have turned to dust. Me included
I hate when reboots dumb down the original and don’t add anything. There are so many recent films just rebooting as a cash grab. Great analysis as always!
Just because it’s 2024 and being homophobic is totally frowned upon, doesn’t mean that bullies aren’t homophobic. I hate how some movies are starting to remove vital flaws in characters just bc it isn’t the “approved” narrative.
I've been complaining about this for a while. In the Little mermaid live action they completly removed the verse were Ursula sings about "women should be quiet" because people complained that it was not correct but like... she's the villain?!! Even as a child I understood that what she was saying was wrong and it was just a manipulation tactic. In the Lion King they also did something similar to Scar by removing the Nazi references. It's like they don't want villains to be evil anymore.
@@lunalluna9401 yes that bugged me as well
When I was watching the musical in theaters, the love interest's face came onto screen and somebody yelled "ew!" And the entire audience burst out laughing.
The Mean Girls Musical Movie is the exact image of what people who *don't* like musicals think musicals are.
it's crazy that they had people who.. didn't like movie musicals MAKING the movie musical???? like bro why are you advertising a movie musical if you DONT LIKE THEM????
I'm desperate to get pop producers away from movie musicals. It's fine if they write the songs that play over credits, but otherwise they feel like they've been a net-negative for the genre.
For example, I feel like Encanto had a more "pop" sound than most Disney movies, and then Disney learned the wrong lesson by giving Wish to pop songwriters (resulting in potentially one of the worst Disney musical soundtracks ever). The difference is that Lin-Manuel Miranda is a musical theater kid at heart rather than a pop guy. Still, everyone in the entertainment industry heard that Hamilton featured rap, and now we're facing the consequences.
Thank you!!! That’s just how I feel about Encanto!!! It was so overrated. The music has such little staying power. People will be talking about and singing the music from beauty and the beast 50 years from now. 50 years from now, no one will remember the Encanto soundtrack. It’s just empty pop music.
@@amazingbecka1Just because encanto has a more pop sound doesn’t mean it doesn’t have staying power. I can’t imagine very many Disney aficionados putting together a playlist and not featuring a few, even in a couple decades.
@@aarishowton8037 hard agree
@@amazingbecka1 bish what? Idk what you watched but We dont talk about Bruno is an incredible song, don't lie now 🙄✋
The whole concept of Hamilton is cringe. And I hated when it came out because I was living with my theater obsessed cousin who would watch videos of other people performing the parts.
4:32 Dude, the people who would've been "turned off" by it being advertised as a musical are people who DON'T LIKE musicals. It doesn’t take a marketing degree to know you shouldn't advertise a musical to people who don't like musicals.
all they care about is the ticket sales
The TikTok scenes alone will make this version dated
Once the tiktok ban is passed (pretty sure it's only in america) it will age the movie so much, and all the shein outfits and trends will age the movie a ton more.
@@EveningClouds Oh, 100%.
@@EveningClouds maybe it's intentional so they can have the excuse to make another remake in a few years lol
I will forever seek revenge for the "I am filled with calculust" line! WHERE IS THE ENERGY THE SONG ISNT A BALLAD MY GOD WHO THOUGHT IT WAS OKAY TO JUST MUTILATE IT LIKE THAT also the fact that the bus scene takes place BEHIND JANICE SINGING "id rather be me" into the camera??? (one thing i do like is that the background actors have a great and realistic reaction from i could tell)
Yeah like even if you don't like the musical which, fair, but the actors put a lot into the role (like I can absolutely get cady's embarrassing horny teen vibes from that line and the song as a whole) but in the movie it's so weird and out of place
How on earth is the original Mean Girls problematic in anyway?
It's literally called MEAN Girls
Not "Girls You Should Aspire to be Like"
It's literally a commentary on those problematic behaviors.
I dont want to offend, but some things in the orginal mean girls were weird like making the subtitles say that a girl said the n word in korean when she didnt and using a predatory relationship as nothing but comedic relief. I agree that a lot was a commentary on problematic behavior and that the new movie removed too much but not all of it was necessary.
Actually it was Vietnamese not korean, sorry
@@braingirl9112Art does have necessities.
My main problem is the racism as brain braingirl mentioned and then having Trang being in a relationship with the coach. Also the making Regina fat thing is kinda fucked up especially since she's implied to have an eating disorder
@acksawblack How is this a justification? Racism is not a necessity in art unless it's a commentary. But it's not a commentary, it's just using race as the joke itself.
10:02: I have my own grievance with the "I'm a sexy mouse, duh" line. Why is she saying "duh" in the 2024 movie? In the original, it made sense because she's answering someone's question. Here, she's saying it just because it's a bit from the original.
“Stop trying to make this about you, I’m the one that got hit by a bus” is so much funnier than any joke in the musical movie
I won’t lie, I kinda liked that “I know you’re a vegetarian” joke. Anyway great video, man, a lot more detailed and well written than any other I’ve seen about this movie
i thought that joke was actually funny haha
exactly. it could've been as funny as it was intended if the joke was just delivered better tbh@@amazingunreleasedalbums
The joke doesn’t work there at all it’s a good one for misdirection but a terrible scene for it.
That one, Tina Fey starting a song but being wildly off-key, and Regina’s “they call me a bitch, but you know what they’d call me if I was a boy? …Reginald” all made me laugh out loud. Genuine expectation subversions, not deconstructed references to old jokes.
@@eileensnow6153 I repeated that Reginal joke like 3 times to my nieces and nephews because I thought that it was so funny. It was the one joke that definitely landed for me.
i have a conspiracy that they actually wanted sabrina carpenter as cady but she was unavailable so they had to settle
god sabrina woulda bodied the role. lowkey hope it was cause she said no tho cause the movie woulda sucked anyways 😭
Fr Sabrina would have passed as both a smart girl and a mean girl just like Cady. The actress just looks like a goodie two shoes or a sidekick
i’m sure they asked her since she played her on broadway with renee
Only reason I don't 100% buy this conspiracy is because I feel like Angourie Rice's casting was related to nepotism. Feels like she was always destined to get the role, despite being a bad fit for it.
@@kendallmonge649wait, what nepotism are we talking here, genuinely asking.
I actually took part in a focus group for this movie. The moderator, at one point when taking my notes, said "They've already shot the movie."
😭
I mean they did ask for notes, what's the point of giving them if they won't do anything 😂
@@zoeb3573 🤷🤷🤷🤷🤷🤷
Real answer: at the point of focus groups they're mostly asking what can be done to clean it up in editing. Things like pacing issues.
Ouch. Did you even bother saying anything after that?
i will not be gaslit into hearing auli’i cravalho say “the loons” instead of balloons
She’s definitely just saying balloons lmao
Yeah, I think you can hear it as “the loons” maybe like the first time but as you listen in you can hear her sing “balloons.” Regardless, the movie didn’t handle it well.
Thank goodness! I had to go back and listen to it a couple times and couldn't for the life of me hear "the loons" -- what an odd mishearing!
"I'm not the guy who hates musicals" .....who's going to show him that musical?
Is that a meteor?!?
Not "The guy who hates musicals" musical 😭
wild starkid fan spotted
*Hatchetfield induced flashback*
It's the guy who didn't like musicals!
Ironically people hate being jumpscared with musicals, not musical movies
Thank you! The marketing for this movie was so strange. Like that recent remake of The Color Purple. I knew a ton of people who wanted to see that, but when word went around that it was a musical, they changed their minds. Being upfront about it would attract the crowd that likes that stuff, instead of turning off people who feel blindsided.
Agreed, I went to see Wanka with some family friends and as soon as the first song broke out my aunt said" oh no, I didn't know this was a musical this is gonna be a horrible 2 hours"
My biggest problems with the tiktok montages are:
1- It makes the movie feel like millenials trying to mimic gen z
2- In real life NO ONE would waste there time doing a tiktok about a random school's talent show!!!!!
What’s even worse is the implication that the original movie happened before this one did, so it falls into a Heathers situation.
My biggest problem is that it's going to age horribly, any mention of current trends or social media it's going to be dated in a few years
"i cant even watch when she touches his hair 😐 and i watched a snake eat a cow 😒" WHHYYYYY
Rage is no longer an emotion
“Imperfections are more realistic, and they add life to music that, frankly, needs life to function. We’re telling stories here, not making the most perfect pop song.” FIRE 🔥
Okay the “I’m sorry I said you were dragging during Revenge Party” joke is funny as hell. That one’s for the theatre kids 100%
my primary gripe is that i think all early 2000s media should be left as period pieces,, THIS movie and the musical itself should be set in 2004
I was going to say that the very idea of what a mean girl/popular girl is is completely different to what it was 20 years ago. 'Senior Year' did it well by making the villain a virtue-signalling influencer. I haven't seen the new MG but it looks like they took the og Regina and just watered her down and called it a day...?
@@samsalter9480 Angourie Rice is also in that movie.
One aspect that I haven’t heard anybody talk about is the fact that these random ass tiktokers are making videos dissing a literal child from a random high school in Illinois. Even if these people supposedly go to the same school, it’s once again ignoring the idea of subtlety. Regina is popular, sure, but why are people referring to her in the TikTok’s they make as though everyone’s gonna know who she is?
It’s the Heathers situation where everybody knows who the characters are because the property is famous. There isn’t a logical reason why Damien is named Damien, or Cady is named Cady or there just *so happens* to be a Regina George at their school...
Cutting “more is better” is one of the most bizarre fucking choices that was made w/ this adaptation. Cady was also just trotted along throughout the original plot beats, assuming the audience has seen the original.
I think the first mistake in making a Mean Girls broadway musical is Regina George can’t get run over by a bus :(
(Awesome video by the way, it’s always a treat when I see your videos in my subscription feed)
wait but she does get hit with a bus in the musical wdym?
@@gwyngwyn_2416 Oh I meant a real bus.
I’m not serious though, I haven’t even seen the musical.
Edit: now I gotta know, is the scene convincing? Cause now I’m curious how they pulled that off-
@@Akitsunesceilingfan it's a projection of a bus that goes over her and then it goes dark for a few seconds. honestly for a projection, it's really good, but it's still a projection
@@AkitsunesceilingfanI just saw a recording of the musical; it looks pretty good ngl. It’s pretty convincing
❌ get people who can sing and act good
✅ get people who can’t sing nor act good, but hey, at least they look somewhat similar to the actors in the original movie (except gretchen and karen)
❌ get people from the actual musical because they actually have talent (besides renee rapp)
✅ get random actors who can’t sing and just cut out like half of the songs
i could go on and on
I confused both Autors. I zhought Karens actor would be Gretchen.
I meant Actors 😂
@@AmiMari555 same
I would defend Janice Damien and Karen’s casting too
I think some of the cringier lyrics in the original musical worked because of the acting and over the topness of delivery. “Dresses and cake, singing and dancing, and CAKE” works in the musical because of the way janice emphasizes the line. It almost feels like Janice got excited about having cake at the party and didn’t sing the line she was supposed too. The movie strips this and the “acted nice when she not nice” of any tone at all and makes it seem less like a “we know these lyrics aren’t good its a joke hahah” and more like “we don’t know how to sing or write lyrics!”
the thing is, mean girls the musical is so lyrically bad, but the songs are so fun to sing and listen to that it kinda makes up for it. the movie took the the thing it had going for it💀
I’ve somehow never seen any version of mean girls so I’m trusting you to educate me, max
I’m honored
I haven't either. We put our faith in Max to judge movies we've never watched.
me too,i put my faith and trust into Max to judge all of the worlds movies that i haven’t seen for me
accurate this came on my for you page and decided “eh what the heck”
Suggesting you watch the original Mean girls- it’s a classic
“Post 9/11 Christmas music is dire man” might be the greatest sentence ever
When you listed off the recent movie musicals and asked what made them bad I said: "James Corden" with my full chest
Real
Talking about the scene with Cady and Janis’ confrontation, I had the thought that instead of the song starting partway through the argument, if the entire thing had been a song that then suddenly stops when Cady says Janis is in love with her, I feel like that kinda works better in a musical theatre sense? Idk it just popped into my head
Oh that’s an awesome idea
Eh- I love how short and spontaneous it is. It really shows a world where heightened emotions are sung instead of spoken.
I can definitely see that. Pushing up into musicality when the confrontation starts, and then the emotion tipping over at that point and the shock and pain cutting the music short. That could easily hit really hard, and emphasize how sometimes emotion isn't big or a spectacle or accelerating. Sometimes it's small and cold and stops you dead in your tracks.
"well why is that?" Enter 1 hour 15 minute essay
that girl calling aaron fugly is so relatable
36:07 those lyrics do actually illustrate something sort of important to Janice's character- we get this idea of a party that doesn't really exist at that age. High schoolers don't have parties with cake and balloons and singing- that's what the party of a much younger child would look like. Say, a child in middle school. Janice doesn't use the visuals of a teenager's party because she hasn't been to one. She stopped getting invited to parties in seventh grade
That's just a note I'm fond of, noted by the lyricist of the original musical. I think it's a good reason to keep those lines in
Same goes for the note of "Did a toddler write this?"
You can have imagery that suggests stunted social development/conception without such abjectly incompetent writing
I actually really like this interpretation, Thank u for this
@@asteridshydrangea-jt2hf Yeah, I'd be more forgiving of the "Revenge Party" lyrics if they didn't have stilted lines like, "Imagine a party with dresses and cake / And singing and dancing and cake."
@@kendallmonge649I actually like that line because she’s just emphasizing the “cake” aspect of a party. You think she’s going to list something else in the next line but she just repeats “cake” because she likes… cake. Idk it’s kinda silly and the delivery could be better, but I didn’t really mind it that much.
I’m not afraid to admit I enjoy the original musical. Not ironically or anything, but just because when I listen to the cast recording it is so clear to me that the cast were having _fun._ They are putting their everything into these roles and I can’t help but enjoy it, despite some of the more glaring flaws. And honestly, I think that’s my main problem with this movie: no one is having fun. Renee is putting her all into this, but even she doesn’t seem to be enjoying herself here and it makes the whole film drag.
THANK YOU!!! Also these characters are teenagers, the silly lyrics honestly sound like the batshit stuff my friends and i used to say 10 years ago
@@serenitymoon825 Precisely! The double cake line in “Revenge Party” always read to me as “Girl, CAKE, how can you say no to cake?” because that’s such a high schooler think to say
@@ariaphoenix2760we don't get fun birthday parties no more we just have at home birthday dinners where we unwrap presents the excuses to eat cake are pretty limited 😭 oh but how I love cake...
Yeah I was actually surprised when he led with "the mean girls musical is not good" because I really like it XD
Apex predator? Someone gets hurt? Iconic
To be fair she said she doesn’t want to act anymore after this movie so it seems like it wasn’t the best experience. She said she got to play Regina a bit closer to how she would’ve wanted to on broadway instead of emulating Taylor lauderman, and I do really like how much bite she has. I disagree that someone gets hurt isnt good/doesn’t work. Theres some chore thats not crying (when they all start shaking, looked weird and you can tell the dancers weren’t sure how to make it work) but I think the music video nature of it works with Regina’s new depiction and the idea behind the song, with Regina depicting her life as a carefully crafted facade. someone also said that in this song she looks and sounds soft like an angel but you realize she’s really a siren.
29:56
The EPITOME of "yess girl, give us nothing !!"
Omg where is the energy..??
To be fair… people who think they hate musicals don’t even recognize that those Disney films are musicals -- “those are CARTOOONS.”
Hairspray (2007) is one of the best movie musicals ever produced. Genuinely still wows me to this day.
(Just reminding myself that movie musicals can be great)
Omg yes! I love it! ❤
So true
This and Chicago! We’ve fallen so far
As one of the three entire people who actually REALLY likes and would actively defend the Mean Girls Musical (it's silly and fun and campy and stupid I love it and its dumb lyrics, I unironically love lines like "i am filled with calculust" and "imagine a party with dresses and cake and singing and dancing and cake"), this movie was an embarrassment even for us embarrassments who actually liked the show.
Why do the backing tracks sound Like That. Who said "hey you know what Apex Predator needs? shitty animal sound effects and (what I'm 80% sure are) BONGOS and a DIGIRIDOO". What asshole suit decided that they just NEEDED to add riverdancing to Stupid With Love. Why cut It Roars, one of the most important and arguably best song in the show (though to be fair most of the good parts of this song is because Erika Henningson is so very good at everything and filled with personality).
Like, the main problem is whoever decided to do these instrumentals and the music in general did not understand how music works or even how the music in the show works? Even the constant genre switching works (somewhat) because certain characters have certain genres/instrumentals: Janis has the guitars and drums and a general pop-rock sound, Caddy has her "african" instruments and upbeat instruments with heavy percussion and some strings, Damian has classic broadway and big band brass, Regina has sweeping bombastic orchestra, etc. How did you fuck this up so bad. Homogenizing all of them into pop just makes it all bad. What were they doing???
But in all seriousness, this essay rocks. This movie... did not. I appreciate all of your takes, and they are (mostly) all correct (though I will fight you on the lyrics of Mean Girls, the silly dumbness is part of the charm, though that may be my garbage taste). Absolutely rocks.
YES someone else who adores the musical, I honestly didn't think there were many issues when I watched the musical, and I had no idea so many people hated it. I thought the campiness worked really well and the stupid lines like "singing and dancing and cake" and "calculust" and "acted nice when she not nice" were all meant to be campy and silly, not genuine tries at being smart.
THIS, I love the musical, I don’t care that it’s not great, I love it and I despise the butchering that this movie did to some of the best songs.
I love the musical, we all must band together and defend our love!!
@@gianna526yes i LOVE the musical too! It’s a parody. It’s supposed to be silly! And the characters singing are teens! I doubt their songwriting would be on point, lol
Calculust lives forever in my head. Reminds me of the "what emotion does this image make you feel?" "lust" meme.
You and I had opposite experiences, Max. When Aaron appeared on screen, a middle school girl behind me yelled "THAT'S MY BOYFRIEND"
😐
He's gotta be some famous tiktoker or something lmao he definitely did not get that role because of talent.
I would be horrified
He’s not fugly. But I wouldn’t claim him either.
He plays one of the brothers that Belly simps for in The Summer I Turned Pretty. I think his character is named Conrad. His acting is just as flat in that show too 😂
@@ChillHillsyes he is
Angourie Rice’s lightheaded looking sigh-smile deserves the roast that Debby Ryan’s hair-tuck got. I’ve seen it a dozen times and I’m only halfway through this commentary video. HOW MANY TIMES DID SHE DO IT IN THE ACTUAL MOVIE?
I don’t know if this is one of the looks you’re talking about but this moment 37:37 drove me mad!
Okay but you can pry debby ryans hair tuck out of my cold dead hands she was probably my favorite actress as a kid, lol
when you said “this movie is hoping your mom is watching… shes not” i thought “yeah shes dead lol.” really caught me off guard when you actually said it. that gave me when a stranger calls you your name and you forget you’re wearing a nametag feelings
The further thing with why Janice hates Regina and vice versa, it feels like Regina is almost justified in being awful to Janice???? Like Regina treated Janice poorly, sure, but also Janice's response was to SETTING SOMETHING OF REGINA'S ON FIRE.
I know, right? I thought the original Janice was kinda mean, but setting her Beanie Baby collection on fire in the reboot? Yeah, fuck no, I’m calling a mental institute.
the cinematography literally looks exactly like the dear evan hansen movie, they're both filmed like the whole thing is a music video
I really dont understand how studios think not advertising a musical is a better alternative it just leaves the audience feeling duped and angry. When the first song of Wonka started I just thought oh brother this is gonna be a long film.
I feel like changing Janice to be gay, while not bad, does miss the point of the original film. While original Janice’s romance with Kevin is quick, the point is to show she’s not a lesbian. Regina spread a false rumor that was still impacting Janice. Both cady and Regina weaponized homophobia rather than acknowledge Janice pointing out problems in their friendship which is pretty mean girl behavior
Mean girls made me terrified for Wicked the movie
real
there’s absolutely no way wicked the movie isn’t going to be completely botched
Im pretty excited ngl, im hopeful
I'm planning to doom watch. I've abandoned all hope.
I was excited until I heard they were recording the songs live like cats, still mildly excited but cautious
My biggest issues with the new mean girls movie/musical would be the casting and clothing choices. The old mean girls had really cool outfits that were all unique. I feel as if the new casting also isn’t very good.
They completely changed Gretchen’s style which irritated me because hers was my favorite. They also did a bad job transitioning Cady to the plastic style, something the original movie did really well. And I agree about the casting. It might be that Cady and Gretchen look too similar
@@youre764 exactly! I loved Gretchen’s old outfits, they all looked so good on her.
@@youre764 Exactly, and as a character they did a bad job with Cady. Just in general. Especially with transitioning her to plastic. In the original there were a lot of callbacks to things she did and said originally and showing how she does the same things now that she's changed so much. In the new movie there's barely any difference, she's kinda vague and weird at the beginning and she becomes a little more outspoken later on but that's kinda it.
angourie rice sounds like they filmed her doing half-hearted vocals for the lip sync later and they just forgot to dub it over
I hate that I even thought this, but I was super confused by their choice in Aaron Samuels. While the OG isn't really my type there was way more of an argument for his being the film's high school heartthrob vs the new Aaron who just looks goofy AF and like he'd be cast as a Mathlete in any other version of this story.
Especially knowing that they cut all of Aaron's singing parts just to be able to cast him. Like... THAT is the face you needed so badly you neutered the character interest?
There are some awful lyrics in this show, you pointed out 'when she not nice one' but I can't abide 'regina george is not your friend, we're your friends and we're gonna make you pay' is awful
Nah one I absolutely hate is from: Apex Predator, when she sings 'Every food chain has its acme
Regina George eats steak' like why the 'Refina George eats steak'. It sounds just, so bad in my opinion. And it's sad because the music is so good, but the lyrics... some are literally so bad..
Like, is it just me that thinks that?
@@stella-m8449Beware of those steak-eaters!
@@stella-m8449also, "every food chain has its acme" technically makes sense as a lyric (after googling what 'acme' means), but I really don't like the way it sounds.
The Sexy remake made me cry, The actress sang ok but the background music changed SO MUCH, I didn’t really pay any attention to the singing but the background, why change it?
EDIT- y’all I wasn’t taking about the singer in a bad way she sang beautifully
I actually really love the new version of Sexy, her voice may not be as good as the original, but I found it SO FUN, and I love how she pronounces some specific words, like "hot one", "do a total transformation", "modern feminism", etc. idk why, it's just very satisfying lol
Ye cuz she not a trained singer
Yea
By that point in the film I was used to that so I didn't care and just focused on the visuals
My TV messed up during Sexy and it made her singing sound SO MUCH WORSE. I was so confused because people were liking it when I thought it sounded so bad, until I listened to the song on my phone and it wasn’t weird. I do like the new one but prefer the broadway cast version.
@@lovepurplepeace871 same dudsey
When my friend went to the theaters and saw aaron for the first time, she went "ope-turn back around."
😭😭
"What do these films have in common?"
3/4 in them: *j a m e s c o r d e n*
I think tina fey just isnt as in touch with things today as she was writing the original. The forst relatable and felt real and not forced. This new one is very forced writing, as if Tina has no odea what would even be funny here aymore.
That's what I got looking at this, too
The original was based on a book/research about high school social dynamics and experiences for parents and kids iirc?
So what we have here is a (sanitised) cinematic musical loosely based on a Broadway show adapted from a movie partially based on anonymised and self reported real experiences... that's so far removed from the source it doesn't even go here
@@danielo9141 That's what I was going to say, the original is based on a non-fiction book. The most frustrating thing about this is the orginal author of the book realesed an updated version of the book around 2018 to adapt to the times, they coulve used that version for the new mean girls to be more relatable and topical but they didn't
36:26 That was actually original lyrics that they cut from the broadway version! When I saw the movie for the first time I was like "omg cool they brought back the og lyrics!!" but I also get why it was cut from the broadway version in the first place
Omg i thought I was the only one who noticed this!
The worst part is that both "the loons" and "balloons" both fit in the same syllable count/rhyme scheme and the context of the song.
The mean girls musical was already a mixed bag/guilty pleasure musical imo. It did NOT need a movie to make it even worse
Well them making a film of it wasn’t really the issue, it’s more they cut like half the songs
I think Janis said “I’ll bring balloons” instead of “I’ll bring the loons,” but you can hear both. I’ve never heard anyone call balloons “loons” so I think it’s just a Taylor Swift “Starbucks Lovers” instead of “long list of ex lovers,” moment. 😂
no cuz why does the girl playing cady look like an elementary school librarian she feels so BORING
She gives Debbie Ryan. She has such a Disney channel face.
@@alexisjones419 THATS SO REAL
quirky sunday school piano teacher frfr
i’m sorry but you saying you were in 8th grade in 2018 shot through me like a bullet 😭😭😭 but so far so good !!!!!
subscribing! and i’m bringing the loons!
same i didn’t realize max and i are the same age
I was in elementary at that time. Time flies
@@eko9554oh wow. i’m his age too and it’s crazy that we’re growing up so quickly pmfao
Yeah same, I'm also his age and it's hard to believe that we're now older young adults, because I thought he was older than me
Tina Fey having her husband write the music was the dead of it before it even began
I actually really liked the gag of having musicians show up in the background every couple of scenes, especially with it leading to the joke of “I’m sorry I said you were rushing during Revenge Party.” I found that as a musician so fucking funny.
the new revenge party sounds almost like it would fit seamlessly on a kidz bop album
I really appreciate how you point out that girls are still mean. I went to an all girls catholic high school in the early 2010s and good God we were all horrible to each other at times, not helped by how much both the school and interpersonal dynamics pushed feminine conformity on us. I think even in public schools this push to conform to hierarchy is hurting all students, especially girls, and it's frustrating to see the plastics who in the original were THE ideal of conformist heteronormative teenagers become, in this new version, a biiiiig miss. idk it just misses what it should be interesting social commentary about the ongoing sexism that girls perpetuate to each other in the school system
I went to a Catholic all girls school at the same time as you and…good Lord, if it wasn’t my parents driving me to hate it and the weirdly racist mascot it was the guidance counselor and one of the teachers *pushing* for us all to be friends.
Admittedly, some of the jokes in the old mean girls are really offensive but when we’re taking into consideration that this is supposed to be a high school compared to the stuff I’ve heard in my high school they are so vanilla I just don’t like how in the second mean girls no one acts like a highschooler
It seems like a lot of newer movies from hollywood have this problem, they dont trust the audience to figure things out themselves
Regarding the good moments - the "iCarly theme song in french" was also a funny joke imo
That was p good lolol
That got a snicker out of me haha
Accept that was directly taken from the Broadway musical. They couldn’t even come up with a single funny joke themselves
That and when Damien praised the girl singing on stage at the dance, but then said she still doesn't go there lol.
Studios can’t keep banking on nostalgia…
I will never forgive what the directors did to Angourie Rice, she did not deserve that. I understand she looks like a good Cady but they really set her up for failure since she isn’t a broadway level singer. I really hope this doesn’t negatively affect her career, I really enjoy her acting in the other things I’ve seen her in.
Yeah I think Angourie Rice would make a great Cady and honestly probably would be way better than the Lindsey Lohan as Cady, as I buy Angourie Rice in the role of math nerd to most popular and hot girl in school as I wasn’t able to buy Lindsey Lohan in that type of role when I rewatched the original mean girls recently and when I watched it back then. But yeah this movie really didn’t do Angourie Rice justice.
at this point they might as well rename it to just "girls", cuz the mean is absolutely gone, reduced to atoms
I actually like the second "she doesn't even go here" line, it's sort of the surprise joke you were talking about
“She does not GO here y’all” 😂
same
same, only thing i liked about this movie
'part 6 : good moments'
*is shorter than the actual introduction*
oh
I’ll argue with the premise that nobody actually dislikes movie musicals, just bad ones. I know plenty of people who outright say they don’t like them, get actively bored or annoyed when stuck in the room with one, and will escape said room at the earliest possible convenience.
But you know what? Those people didn’t get that way because they never sat down and watched one and just don’t know. They got that way by trying them and not liking them. And you know what’s not going to endear them to musicals? Trying to sneak attack them with one by avoiding the music in the trailers. They aren’t gonna go “oh well I dropped $25 or whatever, lemme just sit here and NOT get a refund.”
Fey didn’t “come on board to write the book…” the musical (AND subsequent film of musical) WAS her project … she pitched the idea, penned it with her husband… the musical IS Tina Fey’s more than anyone’s.