esthernight

[esthernight]

The movie I hate the most: Mean Girls 2

So recently someone asked me, “What is a movie you actually hate?”

My first thought was, there aren’t movies I could say I hated. Sure there are movies I don’t really like but hate would be a strong word. But now that I’ve had some time to steam, I have realized that there is a film that I do hate with a passion. That I feel fails on every level and has the nerve to call itself a sequel to one of the most popular comedies my generation. It is a worst sequel and a worst movie than Batman and Robin.

It is the monstrosity that is Mean Girls 2. Yes, get there is a Mean Girls 2.

Mean Girls is one of my favorite movies and I will defend it to my last breath. As a child, I was entertained by it. As a teenager, I finally understood it. And as an adult, I appreciate it.

Is it perfect? No, but Mean Girls still a beloved comedy that transcends the chick flick. I have met older men, who don’t have nostalgia tied to it, who can at least appreciate Mean Girls as a well written and well-made film. Paramount and Mark Waters put time and effort into it. They didn’t treat it as a cheap teen girl movie. Unlike Mean Girls 2, who talks down to its audience, while saying that it’s “edgy”.

And no this was not written by Tiny Frey. Not directed by Mark Waters. Not produced by Lorne Michaels. None of the original actors...except for Tim Meadows, who was written really creepy in this one.

Mean Girls 2 was produced by Paramount Famous and distributed by Paramount home as a direct to DVD movie.

Now I don’t just hate this movie JUST BECAUSE it’s a squeal. I hate it because it's terrible. The acting is pretty bad. The cinematography goes from boring to bad. The dialogue is dull and the plot seems to be a mashup of high school plot lines.

What is the story?

Jo is a new student at North Shore High. She wears black and takes Woodshop so she’s “not like other girls”. The same actress played the mean girl in the Camp Rock movies and she was actually better in that role. She sucks in this.

Jo is eventually hired to be friends with Abby, who is played by Harper from Wizards of Waverly Place. I actually like this actress and this character had potential. Abby is shy, dorky, has ambitions but has such low self-esteem that she doesn’t stand up for herself. Her family is super-rich yet she is still the one who is bullied by the Plastics. For stupid reasons.

The Plastics in this movie, actually wear plastic jewelry. I think the wardrobe department was ran by a 10-year-old who thought this was what “big girls” wore. The lead plastic, Mandy, is played by the girl from Cory in the House.

No this is not a Disney Channel movie.

Jo, who is so on your face about “not being like other girls” that it is pretentious and annoying, is getting thousands of dollars to be Abby’s best friend and starts dating Mandy’s brother.

Mandy does all these stupid things to sabotage Jo including this thing where she “exposes” her for being a virgin and people laugh at her...okay? Mandy overhears that she is being hired by Abby's friend....because Abby’s dad says rather loudly, “I hired you to be her friend.”

Of course, Mandy reveals it...in the school newspaper? 🤨 Abby is understandably mad but five minutes later they make up. Together they form the “anti-plastics” so they wear black and fake high lights because they’re “edgy”.

Then Mandy steals money for the homecoming dance and plants it in Jo’s shed. So Jo challenges her to a flag football game...because that’s how crime works? Mandy loses the game and gets ARRESTED. They throw in a school dance so that Jo and her boyfriend can have a makeup scene. Jo wins and Mandy loses, happy ending.

Yea, l know Mean Girls “wouldn't happen in real life” either, but the characters felt more real. Yea they were stereotypes but there was good and bad in each one of them. And they had arcs. In the end, Regina changes, finding a new identity and no longer feels the need to tear people down. Cady realizes that she can get caught up in popularity and easily turn mean and then works to be a better person. Both of them are human after all.

The characters in Mean Girls 2 are characterizations of stereotypes of how people think teenagers act with this black and white view of good and bad.

This truly is not just a pointless sequel but actually does disgrace the name that is Mean Girls.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[esthernight]