Review: Mean Girls (2004)

So, um, funny story everyone. You know that classic teen comedy that every girl, guy, grown up and their dog has seen, Mean Girls? I haven’t. Well, I have now obviously. But yeah. I really don’t know why, I haven’t been avoiding it or anything, it’s just always been too far down my watch list for too long, I guess.  I'm not sure how we are friends!!

Can you keep a secret? I need to tell you what gave me the final push to see it. One of my bridesmaids is also getting married next year, and I’m one of her bridesmaids (I know, right?) and whilst I was getting my first tattoo, she was with me, as well as her other bridesmaid. Still with me? They were both saying the three of us should get tattoos together, all themed around their favourite movie, Mean Girls. Of course, I had to tell them it was my favourite movie too.

They’re going to be love hearts, with the famous quotes in them. I can’t remember what I was allocated, it might have been ‘so fetch’, but the more this conversation went on, the more I wondered if they were joking, and so I figured that if I’m going to end up with a Mean Girls tattoo, I should probably watch the darn movie!  Having planned a group tattoo with a group of friends of mine, I would not recommend this!  We never quite got round to actually getting said tattoos, which was kind of fortunate as less than a year later there was a big hoohaa and we no longer speak.... my advice never, ever, get matching tattoos with anyone!

So, our main girl Cady (Lindsay Lohan) is the new girl at school, and winds up mixing with ‘the plastics’, Regina (Rachel McAdams), Gretchen (Lacey Chabert) and Karen (Amanda Seyfried). When she falls for Regina’s ex-boyfriend, the plastics put her in her place, and Cady vows to take them down.

I think the main thing I took away from this was the amount of lines I already knew that I can now visualise, but also things friends have said that I never even knew were lines from Mean Girls! It took me a while to get over my friend texting me ‘Boo, you whore’ when I had to cancel plans, I genuinely thought she was really mad at me!  I think it may have been at lease 5 years since I used a Mean Girls quote in everyday life, I'm clearly slacking...

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting amazing things from Mean Girls. There are films that 10+ years ago I may have loved, that I probably wouldn’t rate well anymore, and I think I expected everyone’s fascination with Mean Girls to be the same sort of thing, but I really did enjoy it! It was funny throughout, but some lines really made me laugh out loud, which I don’t tend to do when I watch something alone. Did anyone manage to keep a straight face for this line?

“If you’re from Africa, why are you white?”

“Oh my God Karen, you can’t just ask people why they’re white!”

I really love this film, I can honestly say I haven't watched it enough!!  In fact, I feel like I need to watch it right now.  I still love the slutty jingle bell rock scene and who doesn't LOVE Regina George in all her vileness, Rachel McAdams is a special kind of awesome.

All in all, despite the cliches and the predictable nature of it, I really enjoyed Mean Girls, and I’m kicking myself for not watching it years ago. That tattoo won’t be so bad after all I guess, ha! Thankfully it hasn't been mentioned since... phew!!

Priceless Parent's Guide Finds #1

Did you know every movie on IMDB has a Parent’s Guide? It’s a useful tool for parents to decide for themselves if a particular movie is suitable for their child(ren), and I use it a lot to help my Mum and 13 year-old brother. It’s also handy for me to find out if I’m going to be able to sit through any kind of horror movie.

There are categories for sex & nudity, violence & gore, profanity,alcohol/drugs/smoking and frightening/intense scenes, and users are able to fill these categories with scenes of note.

Well, as handy as the Parent’s Guide is, it defines movie moments in such clinical terms, that it’s actually hilarious, and I thought it would be fun to share some of these priceless finds with you all. No spoilers ahead, not to worry!

As Bill goes through a phone, he sees pictures that the owner took, all focusing on a woman's breasts. (Non-Stop)

A dog is briefly seen apparently cut by half during a nightmare sequence; the head end then chases the tail end. (Inside Out)

It is halloween, several characters are dressed up (vampire, skeletons). A man in a tight-fitting costume struggles to get it off in time to go to the bathroom. It later transpires he didn't make it in time. (They Came Together)

Champagne is seen (Flightplan)

A man walks into a couple (sex implied) - we see the other man's buttcheeks for a few seconds, hear a little moaning (no female nudity). (A.C.O.D.)

A man out of nervous anticipation quickly finishes a bottle of beer. (Her)

Insulting another man, a man makes crude, sexually explicit remarks about the other man's wife. (Run All Night)

The opening sequence has silhouettes of naked women. (Spectre)

We see Ilsa in a bikini as she gets out of a pool. (Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation)

We hear eerie screeching coming from inside the walls of a maze. (The Maze Runner)

A man is punched in the face. (San Andreas)

Vlad mentions "boobies" (Hotel Transylvania 2)

A scene is shown where some men have to break into an employer's mother's house to delete an email that her daughter sent her by mistake. (The Intern) - note this is listed under Frightening/Intense scenes

A girl yells penis twice.  (Hot Pursuit)

Sexy dancing at a talent show. (Mean Girls)

Movie-Inspired Cakes

Planning a wedding means looking at (and eating) an awful lot of cakes. It also starts to dawn on you just how much cakes cost! Although my wedding cake won’t be an extravagant affair, I’ve come across a lot of awesome movie-inspired cakes that are just too cool to keep to myself.

Here are some of my favourites, and just note, I will not be held responsible for any feelings of dire hunger after looking at these pictures!

Like, oh my God, aren't these the perfect cakes for a 16th, or 18th Birthday party? Despite not watching Clueless or Mean Girls until I was well into my twenties, these are both amazing. The Clueless one even has my name on it!

Moving on to two more serious cakes now. That Jaws one even has some pretty realistic blood splatters. I hope it's strawberry jam! Mmmm. The suit, hat and gun on the Godfather one are just pure perfection, too. Someone has a seriously awesome 70 year-old Grandad!

My childhood, in cake form! The caravan park I used to go to used to put on a performance of Grease every year, which I loved. I think I knew every song by heart before I was even old enough to actually watch the movie. And who doesn't love Toy Story!? Whoever made that one has made the most perfect lasso out of fondant, I'm jealous.

There's an awful lot of pink in this post, isn't there? I had to look at the Fight Club cake about 100 times before I belived it was actually real. It's perfect! And the cake topper on the Dirty Dancing cake is so beautiful I could cry. Look at those ruffles, too!

Note: All images sourced from this Buzzfeed post.

Back to School Blogathon

Wendell over at Dell on Movies has come up with an AWESOME Blogathon idea - Back to School.  Well I couldn't wait to get stuck in and come up with some ideas.  Some of the categories turned out to be more difficult than I thought so it took a bit longer than expected!

As always, a good Blogathon comes with a set of rules, here they are:

Bloggers, you are tasked with creating your very own movie class using characters from as many different films as you wish (almost). We will also include someone to run the school and someone to run the class. The rules are as follows:

1. Choose at least 1 character to fit into each of the following roles:

Administrator (either a dean, principal, head master, or some other equivalent)
Teacher
Star Student/Nerd
Jock/Class Bully
Popular Girl/Diva
Invisible Girl (aka not popular girl)
Class Clown
Troubled Youth

Of course, include a few words on why each character was chosen.

Some of the categories have slashes because there is a lot of overlap within. However, feel free to break those up to make your class even larger. For instance if you use a jock who is a nice guy, you can also include a bully. As long as you have the minimum number of students and others, your class can be as large as you like.

2. There are NO RESTRICTIONS on age. Theoretically, you can have Zach from Kindegarten Cop in the same class as Rodney Dangerfield's character from...um...Back to School

3. You can use multiple characters from a single movie, but a class must be made up of characters from at least three separate movies.

4. Use movies in which school is an important part of the plot or are largely set in a school.

5. Finally, use my banner somewhere in your entry and link back to this post.

 Administrator

Mr Gilbert from The Inbetweeners Movie (this is a bit of a cheat really because you really get to know the character in the series and he is only in the movie briefly but hey ho!!).   I love this guy, he has such a dry humour and when he send the students off into the real world his parting words are: "Good luck with the rest of your lives...and try not to kill anyone"

Teacher

Would Dewey Finn not make the best teacher EVER, no actual work, no homework just playing music all day everyday.

Best quote: "Ok. This is a bass guitar. And it's the exact same thing but instead of playing it like this you tip it on the side... cello, you got a bass."

Nerd

McLovin (or Fogell) from the movie Superbad is the ultimate nerd, he gets a fake ID (from Hawaii of all places) with the name McLovin on it!! Amazing!

Best Quote: Fogell: "Naw, they let you pick any name you want when you get down there"  Seth: "and you landed on McLovin..."

Star Student

Mike Wazowski in Monsters University may not have actually been the star student next to Sulley BUT he was the hardest worker, he had the least natural scare ability and he studied and worked so hard to be the best.  I loved this prequel, how it showed Mike learning that his greatest skill was in leading rather than scaring.

Jock

This might be a shock to some people but he is by far my favourite jock, he is forever on the track training always looking to improve and he doesn't give up his sport even when everything in his life becomes chaos - truly committed jock.

Best quote: "Like I'd marry you!  You'd be the meanest wife ever, okay? And I know that you weren't bored that day because there was a lot of stuff on TV, and then The Blair Witch Project was coming on Starz and you were like 'I haven't seen this since it came out and if so we should watch it' and then 'but oh, no, we should just make out instead la la la'"

Class Bully

The original and the ultimate bully, Biff Tannen from Back to the Future.  Made George McFly's life hell and proceeded to attempt to do the same to Calvin Klein (or as he is better know Marty McFly!).  As with all class bully's he gets put in his place numerous times, the best being with a manure truck!!

Best Quote: "Since you're new here, I-I'm gonna cut you a break, today. So, why don't you make like a tree and get outta here?"

Popular Girl

This literally could not have been anyone else, she is the ultimate popular girl with her Beverly Hills zip code and her Daddy's platinum card.  She has the money and power to do whatever she wants (but still gets overthrown by her 'mini-me project' Tai.  She was the girl in the 90's that every teenage girl wanted to be, I personally wanted her wardrobe!!

Best quote: "This is where Dionne lives.  She's my friend because we both know what it's like for people to be jealous of us"

Diva

This was tie between putting Regina George from Mean Girls into Diva or Bully (but Biff didn't fit the Diva category!).  She is mean and demands that everything is done the way she wants it, her friends follow her like sheep and she wouldn't have it any other way.

Best quote: "She's so pathetic. Let me tell you something about Janis Ian. We were best friends in middle school. I know, right? It's so embarrassing. I don't even... Whatever. So then in eighth grade, I started going out with my first boyfriend Kyle who was totally gorgeous but then he moved to Indiana, and Janis was like, weirdly jealous of him. Like, if I would blow her off to hang out with Kyle, she'd be like, "Why didn't you call me back?" And I'd be like, "Why are you so obsessed with me?" So then, for my birthday party, which was an all-girls pool party, I was like, "Janis, I can't invite you, because I think you're lesbian." I mean I couldn't have a lesbian at my party. There were gonna be girls there in their *bathing suits*. I mean, right? She was a LESBIAN. So then her mom called my mom and started yelling at her, it was so retarded. And then she dropped out of school because no one would talk to her, and she came back in the fall for high school, all of her hair was cut off and she was totally weird, and now I guess she's on crack."

Invisible Girl/Boy

I went with Peter Parker from The Amazing Spiderman, before he becomes Spiderman and gained his new found confidence, no one really noticed him.  I probably could have found someone that was invisible throughout the whole film but I LOVE Andrew Garfield and I LOVE Spiderman so here it is.

Best quote:  "Um so, uh, you want to, uh... I don't know....I don't know. Just, uh... Um... I don't know, we could, I don't know, we could uh... Or we could do something else, or we could, with no... We, like, we could"

Class Clown

As a kid I loved this film and the more I watch it as an adult the more terrible it becomes, BUT Billy Madison played by Adam Sandler in the film of the same name is a great class clown.  He goes through all the school years in a year and gets more ridiculous as the grades go on...

Best quote: "Of course I peed my pants, everyone my age pees their pants.  It's the coolest."

Troubled Youth

If any character in any film was considered a 'troubled youth' its Mindy Macready AKA Hit Girl, who was raised by her father Big Daddy to be a hired killer.  She doesn't appear to believe she is troubled but she is an 11 year old serial killer, i would call that pretty troubled.  This quote says it all:

Mindy Macready:  "Can I get a puppy?"

Damon Macready: "You wanna get a dog?"

Mindy Macready:  "Yeah, a cuddly fluffy one, and a Bratz movie-star make over Sasha!"

Mindy Macready: "I'm just fucking with you Daddy! Look, I'd love a Benchmade model 42 butterfly knife."



So that's the Flick Chicks class.  Thanks again Wendell for coming up with this, I've had a great time coming up with my class.