Mean Girls

January 11th, 2024

MOVIE: MEAN GIRLS

STARRING: ANGOURIE RICE, RENEÉ RAPP, JON HAMM, JENNA FISCHER, TINA FEY, TIM MEADOWS

DIRECTED BY: SAMANTHA JAYNE, ARTURO PEREZ JR.

AMovieGuy.com’s RATING: 1 ½ STARS (Out of 4)

A new version of 2004’s teenage high school comedy Mean Girls hits theaters this weekend and the big surprise for audiences will be when they find out it’s a musical. The trailers certainly didn’t want them to know. And now I see the reason why: The songs are flat-out bad. As for the story, it’s the one we all know, only with more bells and whistles, and a new plastic shine. Sure, the songs help pass the time, as we retrace the story of a new girl in high school, getting sucked into the whirlwind of teenage drama, but it won’t make this Mean Girls any nicer.

If you don’t know the story, Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) is a high school Junior, going to a new school, after living in Kenya and being homeschooled by her mother (Jenna Fischer). It’s a foreign place to her, with cliques already established, making it impossible for her to fit in. She gravitates to artsy Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and the hilariously outspoken Damian (Jaquel Spivey). One group she’s told to stay away from is “the plastics”, led by the claimed beauty of the gang Regina George (Reneé Rapp), followed by her ditsy minions Karen (Avantika) and Gretchen (Bebe Wood). When Cady discovers the plastic queen’s burn book of ruthlessly mean commentary about their peers, the plan is for Cady to infiltrate the group, and destroy their popularity, and friendships in the process.

Directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. are delivering a prepackaged product, with Tina Fey back to write the script but failing to elevate from the original. A major problem with this creation, outside of new actors in the main roles and the musical elements, this Mean Girls hits all the predictable beats. Fans of the original, memorize lines such as, “I’m not a regular mom, I’m a cool mom.” Those quips are back, only reformatted to fit today. This Mean Girls could never be called “original”. It’s more in line with Jon Favreau’s “live-action” version of The Lion King. Every performance isn’t channeling something of their own, but instead mimicking the roles that Lindsay Lohan and company had brought to life twenty years ago.

On the surface, there is a fresh approach for audiences of the TikTok and social media age, which will bring a bit of new energy, but the most glaring problem is the music. All mistakes could be forgiven if there was a single memorable song. Each tune sounds like rambling nonsense. Even with a newcomer, that is a legitimate singer such as Rapp, her talent is used by standing against music-video set pieces. It ultimately becomes grating, while Angourie Rice seems to be stuck as a cog in the wheel, misusing all of her talent.

You leave Mean Girls wanting much more. The highlights are periodically funny lines from Cravalho and Spivey as the misfit outsiders, a few jokes from Tim Meadows are good, but the rest is trivial. The story is the same, the new cast is not interesting, the music is bland, and the production is a bubble-gum-colored mess. I hate to put so much wrath onto this Mean Girls but I’m putting this movie into my burn book.

MEAN GIRLS IS PLAYING IN THEATERS THIS FRIDAY JANUARY 12TH, 2024.

1 ½ STARS

Written by: Leo Brady
leo@amovieguy.com