Bratz (2007)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

People are voting emotionally.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

This was by the far the most exhilarating movie of 2007. Forget about Transformers, The Bee Movie, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Spider-man 3-- this movies tops them ALL. I do not have the words to describe this movie, therefore I will use my favorite song to express my feelings for the movie: F to the A to the B-U-L-O-U-S Yeah, Yeah (Come On) F to the A to the B-U-L-O-U-S Yeah, Yeah This is your lucky day Your standing in my presence This is your lucky day I'm like slice of Heaven Flown of the flowing Greatness in your presence Flown of the flowing Time to take a lesson, from me I Guarantee I'm fabulous Simply one and only Fabulous Come and get to know me Fabulous You wanna be my home Funky and fabulous Don't hate me 'cause I got it Fabulous You know I'm gonna flaunt it Fabulous Gonna make you want it She's so fabulous. Oooh-way, Oooh-way F to the A to the B-U-L-O-U-S Oooh-way, Oooh-way I'm so fabulous Oooh-way, Oooh-wayF to the A to the B-U-L-O-U-S Oooh-way, Oooh-way F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S This is your lucky day My music's got you moving' This is your lucky day Oh yeah, it's got you grooving' Flown of the flowing Now I gotcha swooning' Flown of the flowing You've become addicted to me, that's how it be I'm fabulous Simply one and only Fabulous Come and get to know me Fabulous You wanna be my home Funky and fabulous Don't hate me 'cause I got it Fabulous You know I'm gonna flaunt it Fabulous Gonna make you want it F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S Back in the day Back in elementary People like me were treated so differently Now you know they were wrong They were jealous of me all along Now take a breath Just sit back, let it go Just chill out with the flow Because now I am running the show I'm funky, I'm fly I'm fabulous and here's why I'm rowdy, I'm real Lemme tell you how I feel Don't worry that your inferior, It's just that I'm superior Don't sweat it, Don't cry Don't fret it, Here's why Fabulous Simply one and only Fabulous Come and get to know me Fabulous You wanna be my home Funky and fabulous Don't hate me 'cause I got it Fabulous You know I'm gonna flaunt it Fabulous Gonna make you want it She's so fabulous Fabulous Simply one and only Fabulous Come and get to know me Fabulous You wanna be my home Funky and fabulous Don't hate me 'cause I got it Fabulous You know I'm gonna flaunt it Fabulous Gonna make you want it F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S

While the Bratz movie is over the top and disgustingly cheesy, that's kind of the point. This movie was not made for people in their late teens and well into adulthood to try. When it first came out I took my little sisters and cousins to go see it and they loved it, which is the point. It is a movie made for children and young adolescents. As for the body issues; its a movie based on dolls. The average movie that takes place in a high school has thin, fit main characters. That can create issues but unlike those movies who had the option of choosing whoever they wanted for their main character and setting a tone, Bratz already had images their characters had to be based on. Getting made at them for sticking to the doll images is the same as getting angry at Barbie movies for not making thicker, more realistic cartoons.The lip-syncing was dramatic and not realistic but so what. Like previously stated, this was a children's movie and the majority of children do not notice or even care if they do notice. It was a cute movie with a nice, basic, child targeted message. Quite frankly I don't want to hear grown women talking about how horrible the movie was. I get stuck seeing children movies with the kids in my family all the time, and while I don't enjoy the movie and find them to be utterly ridiculous in a number of ways, I'm not going to write a review from my POV because i am not the audience target.The people who are attacking the dolls and saying they have a "promiscuous" image obviously don't understand the impact those dolls had, especially on colored girls. I used to play with those dolls because I loved that fact that they had big lips, I loved that their wardrobe included more than just sparkly tops, dresses, and ugly pink heels.

Bratz (2007): Dir: Sean McNamara / Cast: Nathalia Ramos, Janel Parrish, Skyler Shaye, Logan Browning, Chelsea Staub: Boring formula retread about attitude based on the popular dolls. They are four females entering high school and going against trends. Eventually the girls split into their interests developing new friendships while their bond fades. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that they will get back together and win the talent contest. Sets are colourful and directing by Sean McNamara is fine but acting is a major issue. Nathalia Ramos, Janel Parrish, Skyler Shaye, and Logan Browning are not promising. They dress up in colourful costumes, prance about and give slow motion hair wave shots. Chelsea Staub plays the scheming brat who attempts to place everyone into their different cliques. Similar to Mean Girls but lacking the message and character of that film. Unlike Mean Girls, the characters here are about as enticing as a punch in the face. Its only real drive is its capitalizing on the success of the dolls. This film is purely aimed at young girls who can hopefully know the difference between real personalities and a hunk of plastic. Bratz is not a famous enough product to warrant its own movie let alone deserve one. In the end it is all marketing to the lowest denominator, which unfortunately taps in at young girls. As for adults, the film is about as exciting as a kick to the crotch. Score: 3 / 10

Bratz, based off the wildly popular line of dolls, is actually a much more tolerable film than the one I was expecting to be greeted with. Rather than a shallow, frothy, candy-colored stroll through ditzy women, inappropriate fashion, and immature circumstances, I received a mildly-entertaining, high-energy romp filled with attractive leads, all of whom at least carry their part with some semblance of conviction, acceptable, if scatter-plotted themes and ideas, and a pleasantly fun diversion through the world that sort of mimics our reality but still finds itself wholly trapped in cinema's, family-friendly kind of reality.Make no mistake, Bratz isn't really a good film and it wouldn't be the first thing I recommend your daughters see. However, for a film that concerns three teen girls who are obsessed with fashion and self-expression, we could've been handed a much more harmful piece of cinema. Even as a male child, I always wondered why so much outrage and hate was directed at Barbie, who predicated herself off of being a good-natured sweetheart, was always the subject of vehement feminist controversy while the Bratz doll-line went under the radar, with their skimpy attire, makeup-heavy faces, and distracting artificiality. You want to talk about giving young girls the false sense of beauty and exercising the gender roles? The Bratz essentially were telling them not to leave the house without a tube-top, eyeliner, and eyeshadow.Bratz follows four lifelong best-friends - Cloe (Skyler Shaye), Yasmin (Nathalia Ramos), Sasha (Logan Browning), and Jade (Janel Parrish) - as they enter high school with an attitude to keep each other as close as possible. However, they are heavily burdened by the idea that the self-indulgent, wildly narcissistic class president Meredith Baxter Dimly (Chelsea Kane) wants to identify every student by what clique they should belong to, forcing nothing but social segregation in the already ominous halls of high school. Of course, Meredith finds the free-spirited girls disgusting and offsetting to her plan, but finds little to worry after two years of high school.Yes, by junior year, the lifelong friends have become nothing but faces in crowded hallways to each other, drifting towards their own sort of cliques, falling victim to Meredith's plan to keep all students part of their own little class of people. Cloe becomes invested in soccer, Sasha becomes a gifted and determined cheerleader, Jade embraces her inner-scientist with the chemistry club, and Yasmin sort of watches it all happen, while quietly participating in journalism. Yet the girls are brought together by four colossal, incredulous misunderstands at lunchtime, which reminds them that they have fallen prey to Meredith's system. Upon reuniting the group to prove that they can still be inseparable and devoted to each other, Meredith sets out to destroy the girls by recreating the party she threw for her sweet sixteen, making it even bigger and better, which she hopes will propel herself to the known voice of the school while the four girls wallow in their shame.I laud Bratz for at least doing what I never thought would be done in one of the most ostensibly shallow teen films of the last decade, which is etch some solid, vital commentary about high school into its material. While many films have addressed the abundance of cliques and groups in high school, Bratz recognizes the problem with it, which is that kids get the idea that they shouldn't be seen with kids of different cliques, which stunts their emotional and mental growth all the more. Yes, Bratz would be better if it didn't make the cliques so overblown and farcical that they tread the line of being part of a high school satire, but its acknowledgment of a real problem in a pleasantly real way is actually heartwarming to say the least.Then there's the abundance of singing, dancing, and just hanging out these girls do, which is surprisingly fun and enjoyable, given how shallow it sounds. These are teen girls being teen girls, minus the sarcastic and childish lingo utilized on contemporary kids shows like iCarly and Victorious, but also without the biting wit and commentary of something like Mean Girls, one of this particular's decades smartest teen films.Bratz essentially wants to be a flashier, more stylistically-potent Mean Girls, but its reliance on scenes that are too goofy and ridiculous to be taken seriously and its repetitive nature are what hinder it from living up to what it could be. The visuals are eye-popping, the music is catchy, if existing from the often forgettable subgenre of bubblegum pop that expires quickly, and the four leads are all charming with their smiley charisma and micro-mini fashionista sense, but the film simply has too much going on to really settle on a focus and it bogged down by scenes that are either not funny or heavy-handed in their moralizing. But the fact that there's moralizing in a film called Bratz, taken from the line of dolls that look the way they do, is surprising enough, giving the film much more leverage and likability than I could've ever imagined.Starring: Skyler Shaye, Nathalia Ramos, Logan Browning, Janel Parrish, and Chelsea Kane. Directed by: Sean McNamara.