Valley Girl

As a fan of the original I went in to this with an open mind and I was really excited to see this in a musical format. Great music, fun clothes, 80s, should be a no brainer right?

Wrong! The idea itself is cute and fun and there are some cool dance scenes but the dialogue between the two leads is just terrible. There is no chemistry and the dude who plays Randy is just dull. I love Mae Whitman but she's just wasted here as Randy's BFF. I mean I'm not expecting Oscar performances but even high school musical or descendants has characters that are more interesting. It just kind of feels all over the place and doesn't know what kind of movie it wants to be. It bums me out bc this could have been really fun but it's lacking the heart that makes the orignal so great.

Made by people looking for a quick buck, this pale version of an entertaining 80's flick has some cute moments but it all falls flat without any substance. Like so many things Hollywood, the people behind this are wannabe's thinking all it takes to make a film is hard work and investment capital. The original, also with faults, had charm and a breakout performance from Nicholas Cage to distinguish it. This one has little of anything to add to the original but imitation.

I'm a big fan of the original. I grew up during the Valley Girl era, only in a valley in Northern rather than Southern California. I leaned heavily towards the punk/post punk side of things, but I have fond memories of the more mainstream styles and music of that time. Seeing The Plimsouls playing in a club in a movie was a BIG DEAL to an 80's music nerd, as was hearing Bonnie Hayes, Sparks and Modern English when it was still rare to hear those types of bands on mainstream radio.

But this movie just feels too far removed to really get how we were back then. The styling is just all wrong. Punks in the early 80's had really short and razor-styled haircuts. It was a radical departure from the long surfer mops and floppy mullets that your average dude was rocking back then. Short, tightly cut hair looked revolutionary back then. Some sloppily-dressed guy like the lead actor with messy, longish floppy hair would have been seen as a stoner, not a punk. Or maybe, they got the look confused with the grunge styles of a decade later. But punk? No way. Nic Cage wasn't 100% authentic either, but his hair was spot-on, and his style really set him apart from the preppy jocks.

The casting of the original was so inspired. Nic Cage was just starting to step into his acting style, and he was sexy, and totally believable as the edgy guy who was an undercover hottie, and also possessed of a big heart and soul. But Deborah Foreman-she was so PERFECT. She had this luminous quality about her, with a lithe, delicate build, perfect 80's feathered hair, a very clean and fresh face with sparkling eyes, and a winsome sweetness and elegant poise and grace that made her totally believable as "that girl" that made Cage's character fall so incredibly hard. The girl in this remake just doesn't have the sparkle and ease that Foreman had in spades. And they made yet another styling error by spackling on the very 2020-style heavy, layered makeup. That's nowhere close to the preppy-Val look, which was very clean and minimal. And the hair? That was merely 2010s-style barrel-rolls that every overly made-up girl and celebrity of that time, laden with pounds of extensions, thought was a throwback to the 70's/80's feathered look. It's not even close. That's another big style difference-80's girls never wore extensions, fake eyelashes, fake tans, or fake bolt-on breasts. A lean, natural body, a tan actually from being outside on a California beach, and healthy, natural hair was how us 80's girls did things. If you were a punk girl, you probably chopped your hair into a spiky asymmetrical wedge, and fiddled around with bleach and dyes.

I don't see the need to go on much more-this movie didn't need to be made. And whomever was in charge of the costume and makeup stylings really should have listened to someone who was actually around during that era.

30 year old teenagers dancing to 80s songs with poor singing voices. Cheesy love story between two teenagers of different worlds. Why is this even a movie? Maybe Hollywood can stop making remakes. Because they are usually not entertaining.

Do yourself a favour and watch the original movie. 80s teen movies were far better and these dull silly hollywood remakes only suffer more by comparison.