4 posts tagged “video”
OK.
So, I am probably overthinking here.
But, after watching High School Musical again, I realized something kind of neat:
Both High School Musical and John Tucker Must die have one exact same scene happen in both movies.
I'll set the scene:
The star of the basketball team (Jesse "Abs" Metcalfe, Zac "Bangs" Efron) likes a very sweet girl (Brittany "Blond" Snow, Vanessa Anne "Ethnic" Hudgens), and his basketball teammates think that it is distracting him from The Team. And they confront him in the locker room about this. But they don't know that the sweet girl's brainy friend (Arielle "Maxim 100 Hottest Girls 2005" Kebbel, Monique "Dancing with the Stars" Coleman) IS SECRETLY CAPTURING THIS CONVERSATION VIA WEBCAM.
And what happens? Well, Abs/Bangs, feeling demasculated by his teammates, says something kind of mean about the sweet girl. In the case of Abs, he says something along the lines of "I am going to pork her tonight", followed by raunchy movements. In the case of the more gentlemanly Bangs, he says something along the lines of "Hey, the team is more important to me than the girl," followed by saying the team chant.
And what happens? Blond/Ethnic is confronted with this webcam footage - and she realizes that he's been playing her all along! Although, that was the exact OPPOSITE of what was happening in both cases -- Abs/Bangs really felt something for Blond/Ethnic -- and Abs/Bangs was just SAVING FACE in front of the guys. How was he to know that Maxim/Dancing was capturing the whole thing on webcam?
Anyway. I am sure you will be relieved to know that both movies mostly deviate at this point - Blond sets out to wreck Abs' life and the full cast winds up in a cake-fight in John Tucker Must Die; in High School Musical, the team apologizes to Bangs, and he apologizes to Ethnic, and then everybody does a big song and dance number.
But still... two movies. Both from 2006. One starring 28-year-olds, the other starring 18-year-olds. One features a scene of "lesbian" "kissing", a man running about in a thong, and a lot of discussion of one character's sluttiness. The other features creme brulee, a rooftop garden, and far too many pleather pageboy caps. But both movies? Feature THE EXACT SAME PLOT POINT.
Kind of interesting.
Here is a visual comparison:
High School Musical
2006
OK. So, I had heard sooo much about how this movie is single-handedly defining the new generation of teens. According to my teen magazines I have been reading, HSM (as they call it) it is the "Grease" for a new generation, and also Zac Efron is totally hot. So I figured I had to watch this movie. Let me first just say that my research has found that:
a) there is currently a touring concert version of this movie
b) also a live stage show
c) and an ice show
d) and the sequel comes out this summer
e)
oh, and there is also a novelization. That I am not very curious to
read. How do you novelize a song and dance routine involving
basketballs?
But I digress.
This movie is actually really sweet and funny. It is also refreshing to watch a movie where the teens actually look like actual teens -- as in, this case appears to be at least ten years younger than the cast of John Tucker Must Die.
I guess everybody knows the plot by now. Dreamy basketball player Zac Efron falls for mathlete Vanessa Anne Hudgins -- and they both secretly want to be in the musical. The school's star actors, brother and sister evil duo Ryan and Sharpay, do their best to foil Zac and Vanessa's plans for musical superstardom. The basketball team thinks Vanessa is distracting Zac from the big championship game. The mathletes think that Zac is using Vanessa. Misunderstandings. Singing and dancing.
I guess it is kind of refreshing to see a movie where the singing is clearly being done by these actors, and so is the dancing. In that neither is really award-winning calibre, but the teens are having so much fun doing this movie, it is really uplifting to watch. Though can I say, Zac Efron is really, really, not a very good dancer. Or singer. But he does have the requisite puppy-dog eyes and shaggy bangs to make all 8 year old girls swoon.
I think my favourite part of this movie was the songs (and the soundtrack is apparently the #1 selling album of 2006 or something). At least two of the movie's stars - Ashley Tisdale and Vanessa Anne Hudgins -- have released solo albums. Monique Coleman was on last season's Dancing with the Stars. Zac Efron is currently on the cover of every teen magazine I am reviewing for my YA Hotline project, and he will also be in the new Hairspray movie musical.
Rating: Great for kids ages 8+, especially girls (and older teens might like it too) (but they probably wouldn't admit that they like it)
Directed by Betty Thomas
OK, so as must as I enjoy 80s teen movies (Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink) and also the 90s teen movies I watched growing up (i.e. Can't Hardly Wait,
10 Things I Hate About You) - I figured, for this assignment, I should watch *current* teen movies that teens might be watching, in order to see what current teen movies are like.
The verdict is: teen movies are about the same as they always have been. Kind of lame, featuring lots of cute outfits, implausible contrivances that all work themselves out at a big party. This movie did have some interesting bits, for instance, the casting of Jenny McCarthy at the protagonists' mother. Now, suprisingly, Jenny actually did a decent job in the role. Regrettably, she looked to be only about 5-10 years older than the protagonist's friends or love interests. But here is how I look at this - when two of your movie's leads (Ashanti and Jesse Metcalfe) are both between 1978 and 1980 - and it is 2006 - and you are expected to believe these people as HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS, there is something clearly wrong here. Although, Penn Badgley, who plays Jesse Metcalfe's brother, was allegedly born in 1986 even though he looks about 30.
In any case, I have to believe that the phemenon of casting mid-20s people as high schoolers is similar to how teens read books about characters older than them - teens want to watch movies starring people who look older than them. With the exception of Brittany Snow, who stars in this "film", who was born in 1986 and actually is somewhat believable as a high schooler.
The plot in brief: Brittany Snow's character has come to become very cynical about love, after seeing her mother (Jenny McCarthy) repeatedly have her heart broken by a variety of creeps. Jenny's way to deal with this is to move her and her daughter around a lot - but Brittany has always been a wallflower and so she never really makes friends wherever they go. UNTIL - through a variety of contrivances - she comes to see that the Big Man on her latest campus, John Tucker, is three-timing three of the school's most popular girls. (The three girls are from different cliques - one is a cheerleader, one is a vegan activist, the other is an overachiever, so John Tucker figured the three would never talk to one another - LITTLE DID HE KNOW that his own HOTNESS would trigger the gym teacher's ANGINA so that all of the first-period gym classes were put together and the three girls would all meet!!)
Anyway. So, the three wronged girls entail Brittany to seduce and then destroy John T. They have to coach Brittany in how to lure John, but at the same time, Brittany has already been hitting it off with John's "younger" brother,
Looking at this "film" objectively, I would say that it does have some OK lessons for teens, such as Be Yourself! And also, If A Guy Won't Admit He Is Your Boyfriend In Public, He Kind Of Sucks. And also, Girl Power! And also, Tiny Cameras Hidden In Your Cleavage Are Able To Get Surprisingly Clear Images Of Both You And The Person You Are Facing.
But this isn't a movie you watch for life lessons. It is a movie you watch because in one scene, Brittany kisses another girl! And because in one scene, John runs around in a thong! And because
Brittany's character is kind of the heart of the movie, and she is sweet and sympathetic, in the model of Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls. They even both undergo a similar wallflower, low ponytail, layered clothing makeover into trampy popular girl clothes and flat-ironed hair. Buried very deeply underneath all of the frantic trying to be cool and edgy and funny, is a kind of sweet story about a girl coming into her own. And I think today's teens might find themselves being nostalgic about this movie ten years from now, when a new film comes out starring some Penn Badgley lookalike.
Oh, and I almost forgot my favourite part - when John is falling for Brittany, he goes to talk to Penn about what Brittany is like (because Brittany and Penn are lab partners). And Penn tells John that Brittany is deep - she likes "old school Elvis Costello, obscure podcasts, and reading Dave Eggers." ... "Obscure podcasts?" Riiiiight. Are we talking about Brittany here, or the movie's thirty-five-year-old alcoholic writers?
Anyway. This is an OK movie. I give it, four out of ten for adults and seven out of ten for teens.
Rating: Good for teens aged 14+
airdate: February 6/07, CW network
So, I have to start off by saying that I adore this show. The first season of Veronica Mars is brilliant, brilliantly executed, brilliantly performed, brilliantly written, amazingness. The second season teetered and tottered, but had some moments of brilliance, and I love the show so much I kept watching. Now, it is the third season, which I think is quite a bit better than the second season. My one regret is that no local networks air this show, so I have to wait anxiously till the day after each new episode to download it so I can keep up to date.
Briefly, this show is about Veronica Mars, the teenaged daughter of a private investigator. After solving the mystery of her best friend's murder (season one) and a fatal school bus crash (season two), she is now in her first year of university and currently working on helping her father solve the murder of the school dean. Like the similar Buffy the Vampire Slayer - although there is an overarching mystery plotline, each week she solves other, smaller cases while still working on the big mystery.
This episode, "There's got to be a morning after
pill," involves a good blend of the mystery-of-the-week as well as the
mystery of the dean's murder. It was interesting watching this knowing
I was going to be writing this critique, though, because I think I saw
this one through less rose-coloured glasses than usual. I mean, the
final episode of 2006 ("Spit 'n' Eggs"), where she finally solved the
mystery of the campus serial rapist - was brilliant on the level of the
season one finale. Suspenseful, good use of the supporting cast, etc.
So I am not saying that this isn't a great show - but this episode kind
of highlighted what is the most ridiculous about the series currently.
Firstly - the cast are clearly much older than 18. When they talk about getting fake IDs to go drinking, I wonder what bartender would ever id people who are clearly at least 25. Veronica and her boyfriend Logan, and her arch-nemesis Madison Sinclair, all look their real ages - which I believe is about 28 in each case. They are great actors, but clearly not 18. At one point when Veronica refers to herself as a teenager - I mean, it is ridiculous. Kristen Bell, as perky as she is, and as short as she is, is clearly well past being a teenager.
There was also a conversation early on between Veronica and her boyfriend Logan, where they are discussing what both will wear for their fancy dinner out. They laugh ironically about Veronica going to a spa and getting a brow shaping and other services - but the show's lingering close-ups of Veronica's perfect make-up, stylishly coiffed blonde hair, and expertly manicured fingernails really make that whole line of dialogue ridiculous - she is really not the tomboy that the script pretends she is. And after they break up in this episode, Logan mopes around the penthouse suite of a hotel where he is living, drinking what looks like gin and tonics from a glass with ice - like any 19 year old would be doing that.
But it is obviously a TV show, and a stylized TV show in the style of film noir, so it's not like they are attempting to pass any of this off as reality. The mystery of the week this episode included a preacher's daughter who had been unexpectedly pregnant, but then miscarried after someone slipped her the abortion pill, and Veronica's attempts to figure out who slipped her the pill. Now, this is a show that has dealt very frankly with date rape, rape-rape, murder, teenage pregnancy, sexual relationships between high school students and teachers, etc. So I found it refreshing to see a show deal realistically with unexpected pregnancy in undergraduate college - the pregnant girl had been going to get an abortion, but one of the possible baby daddies would only finance it after a paternity test came back, and the other supported her and even proposed to her. It turns out that her father is an evangelistic minister - but even he was presented as a friendly, helpful sort of guy - just as friendly and helpful as the woman in the women's clinic. It was nice to see abortion dealt with in such an even-handed way, after seeing SO MANY EPISODES of other shows where a character intends to get an abortion, then decides not to at the last second, before falling down the stairs and miscarrying naturally. Seriously, if stairs were that dangerous to pregnant women, there wouldn't be any trouble with unplanned pregnancies.
In any case, Veronica Mars the show, is excellent and I will continue watching regardless. This episode was on the one hand, very good thematically and probably good for teens to watch to not feel like they are being preached at. And I totally covet Veronica's gorgeous leather bag and most of her outfits, and of course the Logan character is totally dreamy. On the other hand, teenagers who watch this and anticipate their own college experiences will be similar, will probably be disappointed with actual college. But on a third hand, it is a TV show, and entertaining, and better written than a lot of the other stuff out there.
I would recommend this show for adults, obviously, and probably for teens aged about 14 and up.
ETA: The CW website (www.cwtv.com) has a section where you can buy the clothes worn on Veronica Mars, so probably all of the gratuitous shots this episode of Veronica's cute boots and skirt and bag were at least partially product placement. Which doesn't really bother me as much as Season 1 and 2's Mac computers product placement (the show is now using PCs, for some interesting reason)
