Material Girls

Wow. This movie was bad. Terrible acting, dumb plot, unbelievably boring. I wanted to leave after the first 10 minutes! The Duff sisters are normally bearable (i loved A Cinderella Story and Raise Your Voice), in this, they weren't. I think there were about 10 people in the theater, and about 2 people laughing at the "jokes". I suggest not seeing this. Unless you can see it for free. Even then, maybe you should think about it... I want my hour and 40 minutes back. And my money. Kids might enjoy it... but none of the kids in the theater i went to were really acting like they liked it. So i can't tell you for sure.

If you are a fan of trendy clothes, superficiality, and emptiness, "Material Girls" is the film for you. But, if on the contrary, you have a mind of your own, and couldn't care less for designer labels, and all the trendiness of a certain group of people, then this is a movie you might not enjoy. Even as the Marchetta girls keep getting poorer by the minute, they seem to have a knack for pulling the right outfits to go with their new impoverished state!

One was curious as to what attracted Martha Coolidge, its director, to such paper thin material. She has done better with other movies, so we were surprised to see her at the helm of this project which will not add anything to her resume. As far as the acting goes, this movie will not win any awards, that's for sure. Even Angelica Huston, an actress of excellent taste seems to be asking to herself, "What am I doing in this piece of $#%%^%"!

I took my 10 year old daughter and her friend to see this movie, and only after few minutes I panicked thinking I made a mistake about the rating of the movie. This movie was NOT PG material! I like Hillary Duff, but I have to say that she is far from a good actress, and her sister Hailey can not act at all. They need to seriously take some acting classes. The movie had many racist comments, like when they pretend to be Mexican janitors, or when they run away from the black guy... and also some offensive comments like the comments about the people in the public buss. It was more like they are playing them real selves on the big screen. Spoiled celebrities who love to waist money and give their left overs to the "needy" and name it charity work. I do not recommend this movie and regret taking my daughter to it.

Material Girls

reviewed by Sam Osborn

rating: 1 out of 4

There's a moment in Material Girls when the infinitely wise and humble lawyer at the Free Legal Clinic bears down on the equally infinite stupidity of Ava Marchetta (Haylie Duff) and coolly snarls, "you're all frosting, without the cupcake." Granted, this one-liner is of no great wit or intelligence it does hold a kind of all-encompassing truth about Material Girls. Except, in saying Material Girls has as much density as a cupcake's frosting is probably giving the film a world of credit it has no business deserving.

The gimmick of Material Girls is in the Duff sisters. Whatever film photographed behind them on the film's posters is immaterial. For all we care, this could be Hong Kong Kung Fu Fury, just as long as it stars the Duff sisters. So in the same way people go to see Snakes on a Plane just to see some actual snakes on an actual plane, people will go see Material Girls only to watch they're adolescent idols bouncing and hopping and giggling about in front of the camera. The quality of the film behind them is irrelevant; just a prettily painted canvas for a blonde hullabaloo. But for all those parents goaded into bringing their ten-year old daughter, I suppose a synopsis is appropriate. Ava and Tanzie Marchetta (Haylie and Hilary Duff) are the faces of Marchetta Facial Products. They're glistening socialites in the vane world inhabited in reality by Paris Hilton and her partying cohorts–minus the sex tapes. They're father, Victor Marchetta, passed away two years earlier and the company will soon be left in the girls' hands. But when a cut-rate newscaster breaks a scandal on Marchetta products causing cancer, the girls' stock plummets and they're left, gasp, without their credit cards. The girls must unite and disprove the accusations in order to save the image of their father. In the process of course, Ava and Tanzie must learn humility and sincerity through the conduit of their loss of funds and fortune.

Director Martha Coolidge stumbles in her approach to the material. The film's intention bounces between parody and sentimentality. Sometimes it strives to ooze sympathy for its ditzy protagonists and rolls out the morals by the bushel. But other times, Coolidge ravages her characters with a volley of farcical gags. There's a happy middle-ground between the two intentions that a better director would likely find: where the believably clueless socialites learn to interact with the similarly convincing world of middle-class American society. But Coolidge veers more towards the feel of a sitcom, sans laugh-track. Without it, the jokes fall flat. Neither of the Duffs have a sense of comic timing and the screenplay doesn't bother with helping them along. Material Girls is so woefully unfunny that not even the heaps of twelve-year girls could be heard laughing.

Just before the film started, I mistimed my restroom break and admittedly missed the opening minute or two of the movie. I asked my girlfriend, who'd been kind enough to sit through its entirety, what I'd missed afterwards in that opening minute. She explained it to me and I felt a deep sympathy for her. She was subjected to two more minutes of Material Girls, and the thought of any more torture was physically painful to me. That's essentially the effect Material Girls has: it is physically painful to endure.

-www.samseescinema.com

I give this movie a solid 2. The acting is terrible. The plot is horrible. The sets are boring. You could turn the sound off and follow along without any problems it is so idiotic. What little plot there is, is predictable. There is really nothing redeeming about this film - except - the Duff girls. They are smoking hot. Based on those two pieces of eye candy alone, I give the "two".

Without their looks I would give it a 0.

If you want to watch a better chick teen flick, try Mean Girls. Or watch a real movie like Animal House or Bullitt or Gladiator or Apocolypto or Cinderella Man.