Step into the drama of high school hierarchy and biblical satire with us, Natey and Katy, as we dissect the vibrant "Mean Girls: The Musical" and the irreverent "The Book of Clarence." Will the musical capture your heart just like the original, or will it leave you craving more pink on Wednesdays? Get ready to explore the highs and lows of translating a beloved film to the stage, with Renee Rapp and Jaquel Spivey's performances under our microscope. Then, brace yourself for a whirlwind of laughter and contemplation as we tackle the delicate dance of humor and religion in a movie that's as bold as it is blasphemous.
As we weave through these cinematic adaptations, our discussion illuminates Benedict Cumberbatch's scene-stealing transformation and James McAvoy's surprise cameo that adds a dash of star power to our Saturday special. Discover with us whether these films hit the sweet spot of homage and originality, as we share our candid thoughts without holding back. From the catchy tunes of a high school musical to the satirical jabs of a biblical spectacle, tune in for an episode that promises to entertain, provoke, and surprise you with what's coming next in our lineup. Join us for a double feature discussion that's anything but routine.
Step into the drama of high school hierarchy and biblical satire with us, Natey and Katy, as we dissect the vibrant "Mean Girls: The Musical" and the irreverent "The Book of Clarence." Will the musical capture your heart just like the original, or will it leave you craving more pink on Wednesdays? Get ready to explore the highs and lows of translating a beloved film to the stage, with Renee Rapp and Jaquel Spivey's performances under our microscope. Then, brace yourself for a whirlwind of laughter and contemplation as we tackle the delicate dance of humor and religion in a movie that's as bold as it is blasphemous.
As we weave through these cinematic adaptations, our discussion illuminates Benedict Cumberbatch's scene-stealing transformation and James McAvoy's surprise cameo that adds a dash of star power to our Saturday special. Discover with us whether these films hit the sweet spot of homage and originality, as we share our candid thoughts without holding back. From the catchy tunes of a high school musical to the satirical jabs of a biblical spectacle, tune in for an episode that promises to entertain, provoke, and surprise you with what's coming next in our lineup. Join us for a double feature discussion that's anything but routine.
One's a movie buff, one watches movies, just enough. Together, fun will be had by all. This is Nady and Katie at the Movies. Hello everyone, and welcome to a brand new episode of Nady and Katie at the Movies. I'm your host, nathan, aka Nady, of course, and with me on this special Saturday episode is my good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good friend, katie. Hi, katie, how are you? I'm good, that's good.
Speaker 1:So on today's first special episode of 2024, we're going to be talking about not just one movie, but two movies. That's right, a double feature. Now it's one song and one movie that Katie saw. So, since I'm feeling nice, we'll talk about the movie that Katie saw. So Katie has mentioned before that one of her favorite movies of all time is Mean Girls, for some reason. So she decided to go see Mean Girls, the musical. It's not called that, but that's basically what it is. It is a film version of the Broadway version of Mean Girls that came out just this past weekend or, when this episode drops, last weekend it came out, so let's go over the brief synopsis. Katie Herron is a hit with the plastics and a list girl. Click at her new school when she makes the mistake of falling for Aaron Samuels, the ex boyfriend of alpha plastic Regina George, mean Girls, the musical stars and Gori Rice, renee rep and a little craval hole. I hope I said her name right. I'm sorry if I didn't.
Speaker 2:So, katie, that cannot be right.
Speaker 1:Let's just get right into it. What did you think of Mean Girls, the musical?
Speaker 2:Oh, and of course you can't forget I mean she's a minor character, but you cannot forget the true star of the show, aka the writer T2P. And Nathan said, I think if I was asked, even probably still today, what is your favorite movie of all time, I would still say Mean Girls. I have almost every line memorized. I Quote it constantly, even today. I'm sure I quoted it way more 10 years ago. It's my absolute favorite.
Speaker 2:So of course, this was a terrifying experience to go see a Musical based on a Broadway, based on a favorite, I mean. So we're already kind of I'm a little worried. We're going into it like you know, you filter something down Multiple times. It's just not good. So I went and saw it and it was not an empty theater, which is new for me, you know, since I last went on saw Aquaman by myself, so there was a bunch of women wearing pink. I honestly felt like it was sort of a Barbie 2.0, if you will like there was. I think it's a great opportunity for girls to have like girls nine, oh my gosh, because really anyone from their maybe middle 20s to 40s. This is like their movie, like we grew up with this movie. So I do think it is Filling that similar rule to Barbie 2. Just again, getting you in the theater, like I think they're already winning. Like they got me in the theater I didn't care what the ratings were, I was going. That being said, nathan, it's just so hard to compete with the first one.
Speaker 2:If I had to do a quick drive by, I do feel like there was some. There was some new jokes I laughed at. I didn't laugh at any of the jokes that were used. A lot of the script is the same, intentionally, like there's a lot of lines that they use, the classic, classic lines like fetch and you can't sit here and she doesn't even go here. A Lot of the jokes are there, but I didn't laugh at them in the same way. I think, just because they're not the same person saying there was right way.
Speaker 2:But all the original stuff to this movie, like the new add-ons that were jokes, I like literally like laughed out loud in the theater. So I did think that the new stuff was great. So if I had to give it like my favorite part, it would be all the new material and the acting man. It's really hard. I mean, what a star stud cast, nathan. I mean, think back to the original Amanda. See, freed went on to be like Big, big, big actress. You had Rachel McAdams, you had Lindsay Lohan, even Gretchen Wieners I don't remember that actress name, but she's like still to this day, lacey chambered.
Speaker 1:Now she's like on all the Hallmark, hallmark Christmas movies.
Speaker 2:So she's made a name for herself.
Speaker 2:So, like all these queens, I'm like I'd be terrified to follow up, but I will say right now on this on this episode, renee rap, who played the new Regina, did an amazing job. I mean both from a singing standpoint, from an attitude. She managed to be Regina George without being Regina George like truly did not seem like she was copying paste, but at the same time Greatly succeeding at what you wanted Regina George to be. Others didn't do it for me. Angory rice did good as Katie, but when she turns into like plastic Katie, it's not even close to a cell like the way the movies progressing. You're like there's not. This makes no sense how she goes from just being a little sweet girl to all the sudden plastic like the. The transition is too fast. I think a lot of the plot gets cut because of the songs, so you don't see that low, that transition.
Speaker 2:And then my other favorite was Jocquiel Spivey, who plays Damien, the guy that he's almost too gay to function. I felt like he was fabulous, like I thought he was possibly even funnier than the original or at least equal to the original Damien. I thought he played that role really, really well. I thought they cast him great. My least favorite characters were the the side chicks like Karen and Gretchen. The girl that was playing, karen Sweet, very beautiful girl singing voices. Great Dancing is great Acting Nathan. Like I almost felt like an appropriate laughing, like she seemed like she was I don't know how to say this tactfully she seemed like she was playing more of like a special needs person than like a dumb blonde, like she just does. That make sounds so bad to say yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it wasn't.
Speaker 2:It wasn't funny dumb. It was like, oh, should I be laughing at you? So that was probably my least favorite character. And then same the girl playing Gretchen, just not as sassy as I would have wanted. I was wondering, nathan, did you see the original Mean Girls and I know it's not your favorite all the time, like me, but do you like it and do you think you'll ever consider watching this musical?
Speaker 1:I don't know if I've ever seen the original one all the way through. I know. I know the big thing that happens at the end of the movie and it's just it doesn't. It doesn't seem like it's my type of movie. It's not like hey, you know what I want to watch? I want to watch Mean Girls. No, and no, I don't think I'll see this musical because I think it looked dumb when I saw the first trailer and it was kind of like what you and I were talking about before we recorded and you didn't mention this.
Speaker 1:It's like one of those things like why are they, why are they making this into a movie? Like, you already have the original movie, you have the Broadway show that goes on tour, so if people want to go see it, yes, it costs a buttload of money to go see shows like that, but you have these, you already have them, they already exist in the world. Why do you feel the need? I know why you feel the need because you want to make money and I don't know how popular this movie is going to be, because I don't think it looks that good. Like it looked. I thought it was like one of those fathom events that was, but like a really bad, cheesy fathom event that isn't going to be released everywhere because it looks really bad. That's how bad it looked.
Speaker 2:I will admit I think I think it was much better than I was anticipating because I was with you. I watched the trailer and I like, first of all, I see the screen right, r Martin Girls coming out like not Mean Girls 2, because there already was Mean Girls 2, that was horrible. But I see the screen, I'm like friggin just pumped. I'm like Mark my calendar. Then I see the trailer. I'm like this is gonna suck, but I have to go.
Speaker 2:But the movie itself, I think it did impress me. It did a lot better, but I also wanted to like it. As I was walking out of the theater tonight, it was, you know, this big group of girls in front of me and I heard him say that was so amazing, that was just so good, like, obviously originals, like the iconic, but like this was so good. I guess it's just my opinion and maybe it's just because I'm such a diehard fan but I tend to be with you, nathan like why? Why did we make this? Why can't we come up with new stuff?
Speaker 2:And I do think the reason, maybe to defend Tina Fey, might be she knows that that was the best movie of all time In terms of, you know, teenage drama comedy and because of that she's like how can I revive it? Because young teenage girls right now aren't probably going in watching mean girls. But she could maybe get some of them to at least go see this movie, you know. So I do understand maybe the desire to have a legacy live on, but man, it's just not the same.
Speaker 1:And speaking of things not being the same as their original material, let's talk about the movie I went to go see Katie. Would you like to reveal what I?
Speaker 2:went to go see. You know, yeah, here's this kind of a knockoff, if you think about it. Yeah, you went and saw a movie that I do, I am curious about, called Book of Clarence, starring LaKeith Stanfield. I don't know who else there's too many other people to really mention. I did see the Benedict Cumberbatch is in there and I'm now going to give you guys a brief A day on his luck. Man struggles to find a better life for his family while fighting to free himself out of debt. Pacted by the power and glory of the rising Messiah, he risks everything to carve his own path to a divine life and ultimately discovers that the redemptive power of belief may be his only way out.
Speaker 1:When I first saw this trailer I was intrigued because as a Christian, I was interested to see what they were going to do with this movie. Obviously it's a play on the classic biblical epics. It has that feel of been her at times it has the feel of the greatest story ever told and those classic biblical movies. I was very hesitant to judge before going to see it because I know a lot of people when they first saw this trailer they automatically were like it's blasphemous, without even seeing the movie. I'm trying to be better at not being those people because I know the old me probably would have been one of those people without seeing the movie. I wanted to go see it.
Speaker 1:I will say there are moments where they borderline kind of blasphemous, but they do it in a way that they don't go over that line too much. I will also say, because it's Hollywood, they take artistic license with some of the characters in the Bible. One character in particular is Barabbas. If you know the Bible at all, you know about Barabbas and how he wasn't that good of a guy. When Jesus is being put on trial they say, hey, we'll release Jesus or we'll release this murderer, barabbas. And the people want Barabbas. Well, in this movie he's not a bad guy at all. He's actually a good guy and he actually believes in God. It's one of those. Okay, they took that character in a direction that I didn't think they were going to. Jesus is in this movie.
Speaker 2:I was going to ask you is the movie based on the understanding of Jesus's life? Is that the baseline of the story? We're supposed to assume, all of those things, or is it trying to be? Only use parts of that.
Speaker 1:Well, they're playing off the fact that during the time of Jesus, there are other people claiming to be the Messiah at the same time that he was. And that's basically what Clarence decides that he's going to do. He's going to try to make money by claiming to be another Messiah, by faking miracles. He actually goes to Jesus' mother Mary and is like hey, can you tell me how Jesus does his tricks? And she's like they're not tricks, the people here, they call them miracles. And he's like, oh, OK, so that, OK, you're actually, you're actually going to go with that story.
Speaker 1:And so it's like a satire, it's very, it's very playful with it, but again, it doesn't at least I don't think so it doesn't do in a way where it's too like, like people will get offended. You know, like how people are getting offended just by the trailer. Now I will say there was one part that I crack up laughing and I'm hesitant to say it because it's kind of like a spoiler a little bit, but you did mention this person in this movie, so I guess I can kind of reveal this. So, yes, benedict Cumberbatch is in this movie. He plays a character that at the beginning of the movie you don't even recognize that it's him. So he plays like this beggar guy who has like this really grungy hair, like he looks like your typical old school looking homeless guy. And then by the end, near the end of the movie, he goes to this beauty salon place, basically, and he asks to get beautified, and so they do it. It was so funny because they do this, and so he ends up looking like your typical white Jesus. It was hilarious.
Speaker 1:I was cracked Like. Everybody in the theater was cracking up laughing. It wasn't a crazy packed theater, but the people that were there were enjoying themselves, and so it was really really funny. And again he gets mistaken as another person claiming to be the Messiah, because all these people are just like enamored by him right away. So obviously they're trying to play on the fact that it's because he's white. But it was hilarious. I was kind of confused by the ending. I don't know how much you want me to get into it, because I don't know if you're ever going to want to go see it, but it kind of left it with the question of does the character of Clarence actually change? Like something big happens to him and then something else big happens at the end of the movie and then you're like does that actually transform him into a I guess a believer, or?
Speaker 2:does it. Kind of like kind of like bad Santa, you know, you're just not sure if he's changed at the end.
Speaker 1:No, he's not changed at the end. But the reason I wonder this is because there's a thing that they do in the movie that every time he kind of has like a what I would say like a bad idea, but he thinks it's a good idea. They show this giant light bulb, like they show a shining light, and then they reveal it's like a light bulb on the top, like invisible light bulb, that he's having this idea. And at the end of the movie, after this big thing happens, you see this shining light and it's a light bulb and I'm like, are they trying to say that he didn't really change, like I'm hoping he did? But they kind of leave it open to interpretation, I guess. So I'm saying all this to say I really don't know how to feel about this movie. I don't know if I would really recommend it to anybody, because there's some people that I know that probably would have been offended by this movie. Okay, I have a question then.
Speaker 2:I mean I think it seemed funny. Like most of the trailer is including the jokes, because you can't always trust trailers, right, like sometimes that's the only funny parts in the rest of the movie series. So like I'm still a little bit lost as to what the genre is Like. Is this a straight comedy or is it just? Is it a thinking movie?
Speaker 1:I mean it definitely has comedic moments in it. I think one of my biggest dislikes is that it was kind of slow, like there's a lot of talking, which again I'm okay with talking if it's interesting, but if I mean if I feel like I'm about to fall asleep, there are like two or three times where I found myself closing my eyes and leaning my head back and then I opened my eyes real quick because I didn't want to miss anything, because I'm in a movie theater, and so I think that would be one of my biggest dislikes is that I think a lot of the funny moments were in the trailer. There were some moments like the Benedict Cumberbatch thing that I did crack up laughing at. There's a moment where Clarence gets baptized Well, quote unquote, baptized by John the Baptist. That was a funny moment, cause he keeps on slapping him. But and yeah, I don't know, I just don't know how to feel about this movie.
Speaker 2:It wasn't terrible, but yeah, you're not selling me on it. Yeah, especially in terms of a theater movie. Right, like, maybe I could argue, seeing Mean Girls 2 in theater because of, not Mean Girls 2, but New Mean Girls, because of the theater experience. Like, you go with your girlfriends, you wear pink, you get to see the dance numbers in the songs on the big screen. It's sounding like this movie. The book of Clarence is as a nice like I'm already at home. If I'm bored, I can go to bed.
Speaker 1:If I'm bored I can go to bed. Yeah, it's definitely a wait until streaming kind of movie. I just wanted to go see it cause I was intrigued and by the time we're recording this, my wife and kids are gone to the beach, so I'm by myself.
Speaker 2:I was about to say they're gone. So sorry to hear that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but anyway. So that is our double feature, special Saturday episode, the first special Saturday episode of 2024 Mean Girls. But before we sign off we gotta rate these things. We haven't given them a rating, so, katie, what would you give Mean Girls the musical?
Speaker 2:With Mean Girls being the obvious. You know six, the new Mean Girls musical. I'm sorry, tina, I'm gonna probably give it a gosh. This feels mean three and a half Like I would pay double the amount of money to go see that the original movie in the theater. That's all I'm saying. So I'm glad it got me out there, but I actually, admittedly, was checking my phone a lot and a little bit bored. So three and a half, tina, I'm sorry. I know you had to do it for the next generation, but not for me.
Speaker 1:Well, and, like you said, maybe it gives people a reason to go and watch the original one Cause maybe people do go see it. They're like man, that was terrible, but it's based on a movie that I've heard is really good. Maybe I'll just go and watch that and then maybe they'll be like the original is really good.
Speaker 1:So, there's that. So I'm gonna give the book of Clarence. I'm probably gonna give it around the same that you gave Mean Girls, the musical Cause. I just don't know how to feel about it. But it wasn't a one movie that. It definitely wasn't a six movie either. So I'm gonna give it a three. I'm not gonna give it a 3.5. I'm gonna give it a three. Ben and it. Cumberbatch's cameo is hilarious. James McAvoy was also in this too. So there are some interesting cameos, a pretty well-known all-star cast, but just I don't know. So sorry for that being our first special set.
Speaker 2:You know, it really makes me feel great about our choice for our season, you know, because it sounds like we may not be having enough good movies to do new releases. But anyhow, I'm excited to see what our next surprise Saturday episode will be. It'll be a surprise.
Speaker 1:I mean, I guess I could already kind of say it, cause I already know what I'm seeing next.
Speaker 2:But maybe I'll keep it, don't you spoil it.
Speaker 1:I'm not gonna fine, I won't. So, Katie, how would you like to end our double feature? Special Saturday episode.
Speaker 2:You just can't sit with us.