Mean Girls - Der Girls Club

A poor imitation of the original. It follows the same plot line and events as the original movie, but does it in a way that it so cringe and painful to watch. The movie felt like a theatrical high school musical play. The musical part did not help the movie in anyway. And some of the songs and scenes were so cringe, like when they pretend to be animals. The movie had a really strong massage about not bullying or putting people down, because we are all just people with feelings at the end of the day...

The film moved really quickly because it had to make room for the singing. It was over the top light and airy. The movie feels like it's trying too hard to be funny. If anything the movie felt like a parody, mocking the original film. By the middle of the movie I wanted to walk out, it got so boring and exhausting to watch.

The entire film can be summed up in this one message, they push really hard. "Calling someone ugly is not gonna make you better looking. Calling someone else stupid does not make you any smarter. And as women we have to be able to trust and support each other"

2004's Mean Girls is an all-time classic film. The Broadway musical adaptation of more recent vintage is a solid and engaging adaption of it. This re-framing of the original and the musical is an odd--and largely ineffective--mishmash of the two that needed to "pick a lane".

For a very basic overview, Mean Girls is a quasi-remake of the '04 original, featuring new-girl-to-school Cady Herron (Angourie Rice) being shepherded by friends Janice (Auli'i Cravalho) & Damian (Jaquel Spivey) through the high school experience--most notably the Plastics trio of Regina George (Renee Rapp) and her minions Karen (Avantika) & Gretchen (Bebe Wood).

I'll start with the one piece of good news here: there are just enough entertaining songs in this flick to keep it from being outright boring. "Revenge Party" & "Sexy" are absolute bangers, and a few others are quite engaging too. There were a few times when I was ready to metaphorically throw in the towel on Mean Girls, but then another song would unspool and keep me hooked a bit longer.

The big problem with this sequel/update/reboot, however, is that it tries to have its cake and eat it too. Had this been a "Mean Girls for the next generation" flick, I think it would have succeeded wildly. Unfortunately, despite elements of that approach, it is far too "shot-for-shot-remake" of the '04 version to tell much of a new story.

Or, writer Tina Fey could have simply done a more straight-up adaptation of the Broadway musical--which is fantastic! That show is filled with heart and the proper homage to the original material without being burdened with repetition of it.

Sadly, this version tries to walk the beam between the two and ends up tumbling off. It simultaneously feels like an unnecessary remake of the original and an unnecessary clipping of the musical. Not even some great musical numbers can mitigate that.

Wanna experience a headache caused by an avalanche of failed jokes? Try watching this flick for more than 15 minutes.

The bad: I tried, I really tried to watch it through, but what's painfully obvious from the very start is that the jokes all fall flat. I just didnt laugh once. What's a comedy without some solid jokes? But then again, comedy is quite personal, perhaps a teenage crowd wont mind the avalanche of lame jokes, that gave me a headache.

Not any good then? Tina Fey wrote this stuff. She often gets it right when it comes to comedy, I love some of her other work, but somehow this movie just tanked.

We decided to go see this even after seeing the subpar reviews. That's what it is, it is a worse but still not bad Mean Girls. Good for a reboot, bad for a Movie. I think that the casting for Regina is good, I was worried about Reneé Rapp but she was by far the best plastic. I think Gretchen was cast well, but Karen and Katy I think ruined the movie. The theater was empty. They should have gone all in on the musical aspect or not at all. There were maybe 4 songs that I remember but otherwise it was just them talking. It is almost the identical plot. Instead of watching this, or God forbid spending money on it, just watch the original Mean Girls again.

I don't see what's the point of doing another Mean Girls.

I enjoyed the original Mean Girls. I thought it was a clever take on the teen genre with fun dialogue and energy and the characters are memorable and hilarious. This adaptation is based on the broadway version of Mean Girls with a new cast (including some recurring actors) and musical numbers. But honestly, even with Tina Fey back, I didn't like it.

Throughout, many of the production designs, setting and the direction is solid although it does feel cheap like something from a straight to DVD project. Whether it was intentional to create a stage atmosphere, the cheap quality and production is lacking. The costumes, make-up and the lighting is solid and the direction from the filmmakers, while doing their best to handle the project, feels unbalanced regarding its satirical and comedic tones. The best aspects are the performances as the cast members do a pretty good job on performing their roles. Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Auli'i Cravalho, Christopher Briney and the rest of the cast members bring solid energy to their characters and roles. Regarding the singing, maybe it's because since I haven't seen the Broadway version, I found the musical numbers and singing to be not great and unmemorable as some of the songwriting and musical tones were either mid or pretty clunky.

The narrative, with some changes, is pretty much the same as the original but while the writing does try to create something fun, unlike the original, the narrative, chemistry, and energy doesn't feel the same as this one felt bland and derived to what made the original one really good. There were a few humor aspects that I did find to be good but otherwise, weak.

I understand this is based on the broadway version and it brings some new energy and grounds to the scene but I don't see what is the point of doing a new version for Mean Girls when the original is already iconic. I can see it being a spin and satirical take on the current era of teen generations but I just feel this new edition feels quite unnecessary.