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93 out of 141 people found the following review useful: Disappointed, 21 August 2006 Author: kayjayt from United States
I was 100% disappointed with this movie. I am usually a fan of the cheesy girlie movies, and Hilary Duff. Unfortunately the acting in this movie was not there. It seemed more like a movie done between the Duff sisters for fun. You could tell they were acting, not very believable. I'm one of the people who don't normally notice these things too! The plot wasn't that unique and it was so short with nothing really happening, and it was predictable. Yuck! I'm sure they had fun making it, but I didn't have fun watching it. And I don't think anyone else in the theater did either, instead when it FINALLY ended everyone just kinda hurried out of their in silence (nothing good to talk about). See it yourself if you want to, I'm just trying to save you your time.
107 out of 169 people found the following review useful: physically painful to endure, 18 August 2006 Author: samseescinema from United States
Material Girls reviewed by Sam Osbornrating: 1 out of 4There'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
102 out of 169 people found the following review useful: Awful, 19 August 2006 Author: shannstarr42
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.
63 out of 94 people found the following review useful: Should be rated PG 13, 24 August 2006 Author: TJSaffa from United States
First let me say that I like the Duff sisters, so I was not looking to hate this movie. In fact, we own Hilary's previous movies on DVD and I figured we'd eventually own this one too. Now that I've seen ("wasted money on" is another way to say it) this movie, I can tell you I will not ever buy this and will never watch this again.The only reason I gave this a one instead of a two is that I genuinely like the Duff sisters. I was looking forward to a movie that my daughter would like and I would enjoy, if not just tolerate. I think the sisters should fire their agents, advisers, producers, or whoever put them up to this. It did nothing to enhance their careers. And I'm still not sure who they thought their audience is. Certainly no adults would (or should) choose to see this movie if they weren't going for their daughters, but neither was this movie properly aimed at young girls (the Duffs' main fan base.) As far as the PG rating, I am not a prude - I actually own Mean Girls, and I am fairly liberal about what my children watch (e.g., we love Friends, even though others think the material is not always appropriate for kids) but I squirmed in my seat for the moms that had younger children in the audience, as well as for my 11 year old daughter. Without going into detail - no spoilers - there were blatant references to adultery, gang banging, and sex that I did not think appropriate at all. There was some foul language. There was outright prejudice against all sorts of people. Referencing an earlier review, yes the comment was about "I Love Lucy" and not a Hispanic nanny, but nonetheless, annoying anyway.Most importantly, the movie was mindless, and it didn't have to be. The Duff sisters aside, there were some genuinely talented people in the cast (Anjelica Huston, Maria Conchita Alonso) but the script was so bad that there was no saving this movie. There was a shot at redemption near the end, but the screenwriters blew that too. (How do these things even become movies?) It's almost as if the creators know that this movie won't last but a nano-second in history, as evidenced by the constant mainstream references and advertising plugs. Technically, there was bad continuity (Check out Hilary's hairstyles - in the beginning there is one scene where her french braid magically disappears with a camera angle change; or the lips moving out of sequence with the dialogue)and the jarring special effects editing were distracting and juvenile.Like the characters themselves, this movie is all form with no substance.
46 out of 74 people found the following review useful: We got ourselves a new courthouse..., 6 September 2006 Author: ThEAnOrExOrCiSt from United States
High time we had a hangin'. You know, I actually like Hilary Duff. She isn't so bad, compared to most of her contemporaries. Then she had to go and crap out a "movie" like this. I'm appalled that Anjelica Huston has fallen so far. Say it ain't so, Morticia. I heard this was written for the Olsen Twins, and they turned it down. I've seen New York Minute. If the Olsens turned it down, you have to be dumb or desperate to sign up, cuz it's gonna be bad. Hilary and Haley oughta get strung up for this. What a waste of talent. Maybe they'll do a horror flick and it'll happen, and then we can forgive them for swinging so low (no pun intended.) Let us pray to the movie gods for something good, soon. Please.But for now...somebody go get a rope.
13 out of 15 people found the following review useful: Ode to shallowness, 10 April 2008 Author: jotix100 from New York
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 $#%%^%"!
16 out of 22 people found the following review useful: Sickening display of the reason this generation will destroy the world, 14 December 2006 Author: thatpalechick from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Hilary Duff and her sister Haylie shine as sparkling young cubic zirconium professional heiresses. They have everything their bleached blonde little hearts could ever want, until OH NOES someone said mean things about their dear dead daddy, who just happened to be a cosmetics mogul in life. So, OH NOES, their feelings are hurt and their stocks go down and all in all they lose about a million bucks out of a hundred million. The people responsible for this piece of garbage obviously realized that not every pre-teen girl who saw this film would be quite as stupid as the characters in it, and therefore would not be inclined to feel any sympathy for the poor little bimbos, and so to make sure that our heart strings were successfully twanged, they burned down the girls' house, had their car stolen, and had all their friends abandon them. Actually, the girls burnt their own house down by setting fire to their makeup, and they gave their car keys to a couple of men who weren't actually valets. Oh, how I sobbed for their loss. I really sympathize more with their friends, fair-weather as they may be, who I saw as very intelligent rats who were finally blessed with an excuse to desert a sinking ship.The girls decide that dear daddy couldn't have done all those mean things he was accused of(creating makeup that causes face-rotting cancer)and set out to prove it. They enlist the help of a hunky young lab technician and a hunky young attorney to clear daddy's name, and set out on a adventure fraught with peril(public transportation)and hardship(having nothing to wear).This movie might have been tolerable, perhaps even enjoyable, if it had not been for one major factor: the characters have no real motive for anything they do. The girls aren't threatened with destitution, they're about to make millions off of the sale of their company. They have all the money they could ever want, but it isn't enough for them. They want it all, and they get it all. They end up right back where they started, with all the money, clothes, friends, makeup, and teacup chihuahuas they weren't actually in any danger of losing.The film tries very, very hard to provide the characters with some deeper motivation. They're not fighting for the spare change they lost over the scandal, no, they're fighting to clear their father's name! They're not throwing a tantrum over hurt feelings, they're standing up for themselves! The movie tries, so very, very hard, to show the girls learning some lesson about humility or responsibility or some other such teen movie drabble, and it fails completely. Both girls get all their money and their boys, and the movie comes across as a taunt to the audience. A sort of "Ha ha, we're so cool. Don't you wish you could be cool like us? Let's go get manicures! And after that, shoes!" message. In the end, this film might entertain Paris Hilton, but the rest of us are left wondering why today's society encourages this type of behavior, and more importantly, why we wasted 97 minutes of our time watching this film.
12 out of 17 people found the following review useful: I'm not rich, nor i know about cosmetics, 23 October 2007 Author: Good Criticize from Mexico
If 0 were a valid vote number, it would be great to put a couple to this...movie. First, I'm not the typical guy that just goes to see this kind of movies for the bit**** that appears on the cast(Come on people, you actually do that?), but mostly i see these kind of movies because im bored or because i have nothing else to see on the cinemas..that's the LAST time i will do something so stupid like that. I'm sorry if you are below 15,you're spoiled and rich,dumb blonde,retarded,racist or all of these options and you're still reading this. This movie is...choose whatever word fits for "steaming coil of blonde clichéd crap" I thought nobody actually liked this kind of movies(and only appear to fill the genre) but tough the fact that they keep appearing, I REALLY can't imagine the kind of behavior teen girls will have after seeing this movie. *Common mom, don't make me wear this, is soooooo yesterday!* *OMG, like, it's not trademarked!* *I can't believe you don't change brands...*Sadly, I'm immune to the Duff's "Magic" because, movies are SUPPOSED to be looked by anyone,not only for the fans(in that case, they should be sold,as direct to video movies). On the other Hand,these kind of movies, don't make a better opinion for them. It's actually more bashing for blonde's (and teens) that they express the dumbness to a exponential level(Women can't do anything,trusts anybody(even local thugs),can't cook,wash,etc). Brainless people who actually defends the Duff's for "Masterpieces" like this, should be more worried about their own problems.Jealousy? For what? What they have done for me to worry about them? These girls KNOW that they can't act.When I see this pair actually doing a movie about...a modest life with REAL troubles(let's say, paying the bills and actually getting a job)with a San Bernardo instead of the Fu**ing Chihuahua,I will smile at them.I thought one Paris was enough.. Two Zeros
7 out of 9 people found the following review useful: A solid 2, 12 July 2007 Author: mec2137 from United States
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.
62 out of 119 people found the following review useful: I do not recommend this movie., 5 September 2006 Author: my_pointof_view from United States
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.
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