MovieChat Forums > G.B.F. (2014) Discussion > Definitely not as good as Jawbreaker

Definitely not as good as Jawbreaker

posted 10 years ago by semicharmed_life
8 replies | jump to latest

I just rented this movie because I'm a HUGE fan of Jawbreaker and thought this would be interesting, but was slightly disappointed. Jawbreaker had an artsy feel to it with interesting shots and awesome music while this sort of felt like Mean Girls with a "GBF" added into the mix. It was funny at times and it was kind of brave, but I couldn't get over the annoying dialogue whether it was intentional or not. The way the characters talked made me want to throw my remote at the TV. I feel like no teenagers talk the way they did. Of course, I'm not blaming the director Darren Stein but the writers. And yeah, I understand this is a completely different movie than Jawbreaker but I just wish the director did something cooler than this after a 15 year hiatus (not including the short he made.) I'd still recommend this, but if you're a fan of Jawbreaker don't expect it to be similar at all.

[–] plazbo 10 years ago

I have to agree, it's an enjoyable film to watch but the writing quality is significantly lower. One of it's issues is that it has a lot of characters who are just "there" and contribute to the story in such minor ways (or exist purely to do, not particularly great, humor like the leads father and step mother) compared with jawbreaker where all the characters were far more fleshed out. In some ways it feels like the script was at it's 1st draft phase and hadn't be refined into a better product.

[–] semicharmed_life 10 years ago

I absolutely agree. There were WAY too many insignificant minor characters. And you didn't really care about any of the "main" characters either since they weren't really that likeable...

[–] plazbo 10 years ago

The likability factor I think is the result of them not being fleshed out. They started it with Fawcett in her room with the chemistry but then ditched the path they were on with it only to mention it again as the movie closes. She also flips around a lot in seeing the lead as a person and an accessory.

It just disappointed to me a bit, I've been waiting for the movie for a long time and it's not terrible to watch but it's not strongly written like Jawbreaker, Mean Girls, Bring It On, etc. 10 years from now I think it'll be largely forgotten because the characters aren't really explored and fleshed out and their relationships with each other are superficial. I mean the friendship between the two gay teens should have some weight to it but like all the other relationships between the characters it's said in the movie but it's not really demonstrated unlike in Mean Girls when Cady (Lindsay Lohan) and Janis (Lizzy Caplan) have their fight and resolution there's a lot more weight to it because they showed the friendship built up and Janis realized she was partly to blame for the mess that happened. Actually looking back at Mean Girls, it's not even that this film had too many characters like I initially stated (Mean Girls has almost as many) it's just none of the interactions between any of the characters has any weight to them and I think that comes around due to all the characters being completely self involved. Jawbreaker, Mean Girls, Heathers, etc all have the characters playing off each other and messing with each other, Bring It On is largely about them working together, etc. GBF just has the all self involved and remain self involved for the whole movie.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] mr-razzberry 10 years ago

give it 20 years when another similar feeling movie came out, someone will post in that movie's forum saying "this is not as good as GBF"

isn't that always the case?

[–] saturns1stmoon 10 years ago

I liked Jawbreaker but it was very sloppy & the ending was totally implausible.
GBF wasn't exactly Shakespeare but it was much more consistent & far less convoluted.

[–] norman-dostal 10 years ago

Jawbreaker was ok-basically a carbon copy of Mean Girls and Heathers. But it was leaps and bounds better than this one-the movie just looked really cheap and the writing waas pretty bad. Some of the forced "teen" dialogue was especially horrifying

[–] InsecureNeuroticControlFreak 10 years ago

A carbon copy of Mean Girls? It came out five years before Mean Girls...

But to this thread, I agree Jawbreaker has wittier writing, BUT you can't really compare the two. Jawbreaker is a very dark comedy, while GBF is a light, sweet little piece of poof... I mean fluff.

Hail to the king, baby.