New student Cady Heron gets welcomed into the top of the social food chain by an elite group of popular girls called the Plastics, ruled by the conniving queen bee Regina George. However, when Cady makes the major misstep of falling for Regina’s ex-boyfriend, she soon finds herself caught in their crosshairs.

Review

Emma – Mean Girls was a big thing when I was younger – you could go as far as to say it informed our cultural lexicon. As for representing a true “high school experience” (as with most American teen movies) it was heavily exaggerated but still gave us side-splitting humour and quotable lines. Fast-forward to 2024 and now we have a new generation of Plastics ruling the school.

I was curious to see if some of the jokes from the 2004 movie would still hold. So, I sat back, relaxed, and prepared to forget about inflation, taxes and the dire state of the world for two whole hours. But… I didn’t do any proper research on the movie before attending the screening, so you can imagine my surprise when Cady Heron broke out in song while running through the vast plains of the Serengeti.

My plus one, who also didn’t know anything about this movie, turned to look straight at me and burst out laughing because she knows how much I detest musicals. Usually, the moment the cartwheels and jazz hands appear on screen is when I let out an audible groan.I could be super jaded and claim to find no merit in this movie, but that would make me a dishonest person. I might be a musical-hater, but dishonest I am not.

The truth is, despite the fact that almost every pivotal plot development is transformed into a somewhat tedious song and dance routine, some of the dialogue in Mean Girls (2024) is quite on the nose. Even though it’s clearly aimed at Gen Zs, I still got some of the jokes and cackled. I hope this means my “cool points” have gone up a bit with the youth of today.

They’ve kept the same main characters (and made a few diversity swap outs – as it should be) and the plot pretty much follows the original movie. I was relieved to see Tina Fey was behind the 2024 version, but was disappointed at how straightforward some of the writing was. The Mean Girls I remember was sardonic and dark – and that’s why I loved it. Rachel McAdams et al had brilliant timing and delivery.

This reboot is peppered with over-acting and is clearly aimed at the younger generation – whereas I felt that the original movie was appreciated by teens and adults alike.Mean Girls (2024) isn’t going to win any awards, but then again it wasn’t made to. Taking the current state of affairs into consideration, it’s simply nice to be able to escape for a bit and indulge in something soppy and surface-level. 6/10

Josh – Watching Mean Girls felt like going on a blind date with someone who definitely was not the one, yet an enjoyable time was still had. In hindsight, the quaver note in the title should have belied the fact that this is a musical rendition of the teen cult-classic from 2004, but that isn’t so apparent from the trailer. I assume the creators wanted to surprise the audience- surprise they did.

The trailer is correct with its jibe at Millenials that “this isn’t your mother’s Mean Girls”. Yeah, it isn’t as fetch; the performances aren’t as memorable, the music and dance pieces reminded me of the trauma of watching High School Musical (side-note: I do like musicals), but the sarcasm and humour are still present in bucket-loads and make the overall experience a fun and nostalgic one.

Although the musical compositions aren’t great, the vocal skills are impressive, particularly that of Reneé Rapp (playing Regina George), who really carried the film. I laughed and I cringed in almost equal measure, which serves the intended purpose of a lighthearted escape. Then there is Lindsay Lohan’s unexpected cameo which definitely had its effect on the audience, at least we know she gave her blessing that this film can sit with us.

Overall, I enjoyed the film for what it is, especially as the moral of being true to yourself is one that will always ring true. It’s a family-friendly movie that will surely have a wide audience, and will hopefully draw a younger group to the splendour and spice of the original Mean Girls. 7/10

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