The Good

The Bad

Bad Girls from Valley High is a cross between Heathers, Mean Girls, Not Another Teen Movie and any other teen movie from the 1990s on up. I didn’t think that this movie was awful, I just didn’t get it. I also didn’t like Mean Girls, so I guess it’s a taste thing. Not that I have any more of it then anyone else, more to the point, I just like different things and mean spirited movies that are supposed to be funny are just not something I care to watch.

Bad Girls from Valley High is the story of Danielle, Tiffany and Brooke. Each of these 3 girls are a type. Danielle is the pretty one(although I personally think Tiffany is much prettier), Tiffany is supposed to be stupid and Brooke is smart. They are the coolest people in school until foreign exchange student Katarina comes to town. She and Danielle are then pitted against one another for the affections of Drew, a sad young lad who is still grieving over the death of his girlfriend a year ago. Through a series of events where the three “meanies” are “transformed” everything ends up exactly as you might think in this sort of teen movie with dire consequences.

I could tell you more, I could give away more...but I think that if you are interested in these kinds of film then you should certainly check it out. I knew up front, yes, judging a DVD by it’s cover, that this movie would probably not be for me. Yet, I sat through it and while I didn’t hate it, I didn’t like it very much either. I guess my final point is this...

What in the world are both Christopher Lloyd and the late Janet Leigh doing in this movie?

Features

Hilarious Deleted Scenes

Yes, the back of the box refers to these scenes as “Hilarious.” These scenes just start. There is no way to access them individually, you just play them as one long clip. Maybe these might be funny to someone, but for me I honestly don’t get the jokes. There are only two scenes here to view. A show scene with Julie Benz and a scene in which Christopher Lloyd, on crutches, gets tripped, then walks out of the room and and screams. The second scene was actually funny, but I think that’s more because I find Christopher Lloyd funny. Had it been another character in the movie I honestly might not have laughed. I did laugh though...out loud too!

Video

Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1. Everything about this film looks right. The transfer and compression make for a nice picture, the set designer created the typical “movie” high school(for this “type” of movie), and yet at the end of the day something feels off. I cannot explain entirely what it is, but movies like Not Another Teen Movie are B movies. This movie is sort of like a subdivision of a B movie so in that sense it’s hard to categorize. I mean, it’s a knock off of a knock off. All of this plays into how this film “looks”. It’s got all the devices that those B movie have yet it isn’t one of those movies. It looks right but something about it isn’t, if that makes any sense.

Audio

English Dolby Digital 2.0. You know, I am starting to get sick of seeing bands in movies that are supposed to be “punk”. I hate going on a rant like this because I end up sounding like an old, “punk pride” guy...so I am just going to stop there. This movie sounds good. It’s got all the music and ambient noises you have come to expect. This actually plays hand in hand with this movies look. The sound is slick and well designed, making each scene move into the next with no thought of what was said, or more importantly for this movie, done in the previous one. Nothing too special and nothing too great here...just what you might think the sound should be. Overall, a solid sound job.

Package

With a front cover font for the Bad Girls from Valley High, this DVD cover looks to be trying to “ape” Mean Girls. It even displays the three girls on the cover with a background color scheme, that while not entirely the same as Mean Girls, certainly looks a lot like it. On the back are three pictures from the movie featuring the three “stars” and smaller pictures of Janet Leigh and Christopher Lloyd(yes, you have read that right...they get the smaller ones). There is a small description of what this movie is about and in tiny lettering it says that this DVD includes deleted scenes. The people who package these movies are very smart in that they are aware of their audience. They know what they like and don’t like, and a movie of this type is so niche specific that it seems like packaging might even be created with a template!

Final Word

I know that in some way, or maybe that’s in some weird alternative universe...or someplace, a movie like Bad Girls from Valley High could be considered high art. It would be revered. Loved. Looked as an amazing spectacle. However in my screening room, a movie like this is just bad. I know that it’s supposed to be campy, I know that the actors are playing types, I know that in some weird way I am supposed to get all this and be in on the joke. Sadly, I wasn’t. I didn’t hate this movie so much as I just didn’t care. I am sure that there is a place for a movie like Bad Girls from Valley High, but it’s not in my DVD collection.

My biggest problem with this film is that I just can’t get behind characters like this. I just can’t watch people behave this way and feel that it’s something to be applauded. I know that this is a genre film and I am probably taking things too seriously or missing the point, but the truth of the matter is that I have liked films similar to this. Take for instance, Heathers or even something like Not Another Teen Movie. While maybe not the best films to address the social condition of High School, these movies at least do it in a way that I just think is better then what Bad Girls from Valley High presents.

Truth be told, I am just not a fan of movies like this, this isn’t to say that this film should not be seen or that it doesn’t have an audience. It just isn’t my cup of tea but for those whose cup it is...DRINK UP!!

The Bad Girls from Valley High was released July 17, 2005.