MeanGirls Tagged Articles at Cinematical

If you've been waiting anxiously to see what would come of the Pretty in Pink, Clueless, and Mean Girls, games that William Goss mentioned last year, the wait is over! Unfortunately, it doesn't look like they're offering a lot. (Not that I'm surprised.) Variety got a chance to look at the three games, and they say the result "is derivative and pandering, but with just enough surprises to satisfy a target audience with low expectations."

The '80s installment, Pretty in Pink is said to be the strongest of the three, playing like a puzzle workbook with item-hunting -- like those touch screens you can play at a bar. The big highlights: you can choose the prom dress Andie wears to the prom, and even whether she ends up with Blaine or Duckie. The '90s installment, Clueless, has been called out as the weakest -- a drag and drop against the clock dressing game. The best, and oh-so-charming part: You get extra points if the outfit you created pleases the character's boyfriend. The only guy that's kosher for is Christian, and he's gay, so Paramount, that's ridiculous, insulting, and tacky. Finally, the '00 comes in with Mean Girls, which actually plays out like a mean teen version of Puzzle Quest. Well, a way-too-easy version of the game.

They'll definitely sell a few games, but what's the point? Girls are too dumb to play something slightly more in-depth? Hell, you can play simple games online that are more intriguing. If Paramount, or any other studio wants to make girls' games, which we so desperately need, how about sparking it up a little? If it's a movie, and a computer game, go the Monty Python and the Holy Grail route -- a long journey of a game with a slew of different mini-games (like the insanely great wiggling man in "I'm Not Dead Yet" Tetris). And while they're at it, I'd like a Heathers game done that way, please.

Okay, I've officially discovered my first favorite piece of geeked-out awesomeness of 2009, and it comes in the form of these excellent 1960s-inspired paperback book covers of novelized movie adaptations. Artist Mitch Ansara created these illustrations as part of his own Make Something Cool Every Day project, and all of them come from his (fictional) I Can Read Movies series. What we have are paperback book covers for films like Back to the Future, Mean Girls, Ghostbusters, Shaun of the Dead and Caddyshack, among others. My personal favorite (as seen in the gallery below) is the freaky Japanese paperback cover he created for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Check out some of our favorites down below, then head on over to this page and click on the paperback cover to read more about how Mitch went about creating it. Nice work, sir.



[via LaughingSquid]

They've both been Mean Girls, both acted for Nick Cassavetes, both appeared in wedding movies and now both Rachel McAdams and Amanda Seyfried will have shared the honor of being the leading lady in a Nicholas Sparks adaptation. For McAdams, it was 2005's beloved weepy The Notebook; for Seyfried, rising fast after starring in the hugely popular Mamma Mia!, it's Dear John. According to Variety, the 22-year-old has been cast as Savannah, a virginal college student who falls in love with a soldier on leave (and named John, of course) immediately prior to 9/11. Kind of like Pearl Harbor but with more letters than explosions.

The soldier is being played by Channing Tatum, who will be fresh from G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra when Dear John hits theaters, likely a year from now. Meanwhile, Seyfried will have costarred in the third season of HBO's Big Love, which begins airing in January, and opposite Megan Fox in the Diablo Cody-scripted Jennifer's Body. Dear John is being directed by Lasse Hallström (Chocolat) from an adaptation scripted by Jamie Linden (We Are Marshall). Shooting begins next month in South Carolina.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the video store, a whole new line of sequels threatens to crowd the new release shelves. Paramount Famous Prods. announced plans to raid the libraries of Paramount, Paramount Vantage, DreamWorks, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies in search of source material to sequelize, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Projects already in development include sequels to Mean Girls, Road Trip, The Naked Gun, Bad News Bears and Grease. First out of the gate will be Without a Paddle: Nature's Calling, due out in early 2009.

If you're saying to yourself, "Wait a minute, haven't some of these movies already been sequel-ized, sometimes more than once?" the answer is yes. (Naked Gun, Bad News Bears, Grease). If you're then wondering, "Why more sequels?" the answer is, as Deep Throat told Bob Woodward, "Follow the money." The unit is headed by Louis Feola, who formerly ran Universal Studios Home Entertainment, which made three direct-to-video sequels to American Pie and three to Bring It On. Each sold between one to two million copies, translating into many millions of dollars without the risks and expense of thearical distribution.

I have absolutely no problem with low-budget productions that trade on their resemblance to well-known titles, as long as they're smartly made with a degree of fun, intelligence, and style. That's been in short supply lately in the direct-to-video productions I've seen. We'll see what happens when Paramount Famous starts releasing their line in earnest starting in 2010, at a pace of five to six films annually.

Man, has this day brought us news of film-based video games aplenty -- one of which you can play for free right now and the rest of which some of you simply can't wait for.

But you'll have to. Wait, that is. They haven't made the darn things yet. Sheesh, hold your horses already.

Trade publication Variety tells us of these titles over the course of two separate articles. One piece points out Universal's plan to crank out several games based on their properties, but only names their highest-profile property at the moment: Wanted. If any of you have seen the film (and a $123 million gross would suggest as much), then you know just how well it should lend itself to the format, what with the bullet curving and knife fighting and Angelina Jolie ogling.

I just love really random connections between things, which is why I'm digging the story that popped up over at The Hollywood Reporter. It seems that Paramount Pictures is teaming up with a teen-centric virtual world called Habbo to put together a series of virtual goodies based on three of their films. Habbo will have the merchandising rights to two unsurprising flicks -- Beowulf and The Spiderwick Chronicles. However, the third is a totally left-field addition: Mean Girls. Which of these is not like the others? I mean, yes, it's a teen movie, but it's much older than the other two and a totally different sort of film than its companion flicks. How on earth did it get on the list?

As for this whole "virtual marketing" thing... Habbo is this virtual teen hangout/social networking site where you make avatars and interact with other people in these little faux rooms. The deal will allow the site to include themed clothing and furniture for these little things, so I guess one person can dress up like Grendel and then drool over a mini, virtual Cady Heron. But movie goodness doesn't come free. The site allows the kids to purchase credits to buy virtual products. Ah, there's nothing like paying for fake furniture and clothing.

I'm not a horror buff. In fact, I don't care much about horror films in the least. That's why you won't see me doing too many of these Retro Cinema posts during our month-long Halloween celebration. I also don't own many DVDs. I just don't buy them. Ever. But I own Final Destination. Why? Well, the reason I own the DVD is a long story – I didn't run out and buy it because I love it – but I have held onto it, because I do have a real soft spot for the movie and its sequels (such simple titles: Final Destination 2 and Final Destination 3).

Much of my, let's call it tolerance, of Final Destination has to do with my fascination with Rube Goldebergian chain reactions. Other horror films may have their foreshadowing and suspense, but many of the deaths in Final Destination consist of an intricate path of destruction. For example, one woman is killed by her carelessness to pour freezer-kept vodka into a very hot mug. As expected, the mug cracks, the vodka spills onto the floor, making it slippery, some of the liquid falls into a computer monitor, which blows up in her face, etc. By the end of the scene, the woman is lying on the floor of a kitchen aflame, she has kitchen knives sticking into all parts of her body and certainly there's no other explanation for her demise than it being an elaborate, freak accident.

Apparently there'z a line of toyz out there that sold just enough merchandise to warrant a big-screen movie, regardlezz of the fact that, az far az creative influencez go, a "line of toyz" isn't exactly the most reliable (or logical) inspiration. And no, I'm not talking about Transformerz. (Well, maybe a little.) But at least the Transformerz have robotz and rocketz and Shia LaBeouf to kick around, whereaz the atrociouz-looking piece of mind control called Bratz: The Movie has ... four good-lookin' piecez of jailbait and a screenplay that was last used on a movie called Mean Girlz.

For those who think thiz might be the first piece of brain-puckering ignorance foisted upon us by the "Bratz," think again. This is a toy line that introduced a Chinese doll wearing a Japanese kimono (cuz Asian girlz are all the same!), included dolly-sized thongz and mini champagne bottlez so little girlz would know what being female iz all about, and reminded uz that most of the toyz you blindly buy for your daughterz are made in Chinese sweat shopz. Soundz like a perfect idea for a movie. (For those who are blissfully ignorant of what "Bratz" are: They're slang-slingin' boy-crazy Barbiez with lotz of in-your-face attitude. Picture the Simpsonz episode in which Poochie the Dog was created and you probably have a good idea regarding the Bratz genesiz.)

In an effort to have young girlz go "boy crazy" and "mall-addicted" a few yearz earlier than normal (and therefore sell more productz), producer Avi Arad, Lionsgate Filmz and soul-killing toymaker MGA Entertainment have conspired to throw a live-action movie together -- which iz a little weird because the actual Bratz characterz look a little like retarded space alienz. And they hired a very appropriate director for such a base yet inevitably profitable project: Sean McNamara, helmer of Treehouse Hostage, Raise Your Voice and 3 Ninjaz: High Noon at Mega Mountain. (If an actual lobotomy takes longer than 4.5 hourz, you could simply opt for thiz triple feature.)

Anyway, yeah. Bratz: The Movie. Pickling your daughterz' brain on August 10. Here'z the trailer. And if thiz flick makez more money than Spice World, I may just have to pack my bagz and move to The Philippinez. Oh, and by the way: "Brats" is spelled with an "S," you jerks. Stop trying to turn our kids stupid.

I first saw Amy Poehler in a hilarious recurring role on Late Night With Conan O'Brien as Andy Richter's psychotic little sister, then on the uneven but often funny Upright Citizen's Brigade. Tina Fey has skillfully manned (or womaned, I guess) the Weekend Update desk for years, and I liked what she did as one of the token adult characters in Mean Girls, which she also scripted. Despite the verbal jabs I took the last time I said this, Fey and Poehler were perhaps the best Weekend Update team in the history of Saturday Night Live. Two very funny individuals with great chemistry. What's not to like?

Now the pair will reteam for Baby Mama, a comedy from Universal. Writing and directing will be former SNL writer and first-time director Michael McCullers, who wrote the screenplays for both Austin Powers sequels as well as Thunderbirds. According to Variety, by way of Zap2it, Baby Mama is the tale of a single woman who wants to have a baby without sacrificing her career, so she hires a surrogate. No indication which actress will play which role. Production will begin next summer once Poehler is done with the current season of SNL and Fey completes the premiere season of her new show 30 Rock.

A maddeningly vague and typically eloquent item over at Ain't It Cool points to the news (first spread by Variety) that Daniel Waters, the writer of Heathers is back with a project that could legitimate that early flash of brilliance. Called Sex and Death 101 (sounds like an alternate title for the film that introduced , no?), the film, which looks to be in pre-production, takes off when a guy receives an anonymous email detailing his entire sexual history – past, present, and future. Though casting is said to be underway, but the project doesn't have an IMDB entry yet.

Waters hasn't been heard from in a while. He had a brief stint as a scribe-for-hire in the early 90s, after Heathers introduced gems such as "what's your damage?" and "fuck me gently with a chainsaw" into modern parlance, receiving credit on the screenplays for Batman Returns and Demolition Man ... as well as those of the Adventures of Ford Fairlane (yep, the Andrew Dice Clay movie) and everyone's favorite debacle (or, at least, Martha's), Hudson Hawk. A rumored Heathers sequel never materialized, and Dan's career then seemed to go dormant as his brother Mark's ascended, with the latter cranking out five films, including Mean Girls, since debuting with The House of Yes in 1997. Dan's directorial debut, called Happy Campers, made barely a splash in 2001. Let's hope that he's been putting the last five years to good use, and that Sex and Death reverses the trend.