Sorority Wars

I rented this because of the actresses in this movie (and the plot appealed to me), and the resulting product surprised me. The daughter in the movie goes to college and agrees to pledge her mother's sorority. Unfortunately, the girls in this chapter turn out to be shallow snobs who care little about her, and she also checks out another one. After overhearing two sisters talking about "illegal stuff", she reports it, the sorority gets stripped of its upcoming formal, and she gets shunned by the campus population. Her best friend stays in the other sorority and becomes a "mean girl." She finally gets into the other sorority as a "late pledge," her mother is not too happy (as you can imagine), and an all-out war between the two sororities begins. I think this says something about our society and becoming our own person. I recommend it.

*** out of ****

First, let me say I never saw Mean Girls - the movie and/ or any sequels or iterations (eg. Musical) - so for all the reviewers downgrading the movie because it's a "shameless Mean Girls rip-off," I have no basis to make that complaint. I reviewed this movie on its own merits alone.

Secondly, this is clearly a high-production value movie for a Lifetime movie. Not quite theatrical release quality, but certainly a Disney original movie or Netflix original movie quality.

The movie is carried brilliantly by hugely watchable multi-talented charismatic seasoned TV Queen Lucy Hale in an early-ish TV movie role that makes the movie engaging right out the gate.

Sticking to a common Lifetime setup wherein the star girl gets accepted or is recruited or pressured to join the same sorority as her mom as a "legacy" sister, the movie is built around the tension that ensues when the girl breaks from that mold. The movie could well have been entitle Mean Moms.

The campy sometimes cringy "warring" aside ("more like 'Little Whores on the Prairie'"), the movie does prove to be a mini-showcase for the loveable Hale.

This a Lifetime movie worth seeing.

This film begins with a young college students named "Katie Parker" (Lucy Hale) and her best friend "Sara Snow" (Phoebe Strohl) endeavoring to determine which sorority to choose. Since her mother is a leading member of the Delta sorority, Katie is considered as a "legacy" and has an extremely good chance of being accepted to it. Sara, on the other hand, is not as fortunate and can only hope to be selected by it. Making things even more interesting is the fact that it is consider a coup if another sorority can lure a rival legacy over to them. To that effect, the Kappa sorority has expressed an interest in Katie as well. Recognizing this, the Delta sorority intentionally violates the rules in order to entice Katie join them--and that's when things go horribly wrong for both Katie and Sara. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was an interesting made-for-television film which started off pretty well but began to lose some of its appeal at around the halfway mark due to some rather unrealistic scenarios from that point on-with the strained relationship between Katie and her mother "Lutie" (Courtney Thorne-Smith) being especially peculiar. But that's just my opinion. Be that as it may, while I certainly don't consider this to be a great film by any means, I suppose it still passed the time rather well, and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

The "On Demand" synopsis pretty well told it all. The questions weren't what was going to happen, only occasionally when. Lots of pretty people, although generally cardboard, even prettier campus housing/sorority houses. The hope is that this was all silly fiction, from the incredibly huge dorm rooms (two people in a room four times the size my daughter shared with three), to the silly trivia quiz, to the only course anybody seems to have gone to being art. To think that there could be people that actually pay $50K a year to have their children go to such an institution says things about our society I'd rather not address (gratuitous comment added to make the ten lines--this film isn't worth that many on its merits).

If you have nothing better to do, and you don't actually think about it, it isn't overly painful, but be warned, the banality oozes.

-- It's about what you can expect from one of these kinds of movies, but it was very cute and the acting was good. If you're bored and want to find a cute family film, you found it.

It of course has the personal lessons, stand up for what you believe in and know who your true friends are but I tend to like movies where the main character is easier to relate to, the one in this film seems perfect.

She's pretty, speaks her mind, has the loyalty thing going, great family, talented, incredibly intelligent, gets attention from "like the hottest guy ever". So over all, average.