The new “Mean Girls” adaptation came out on Jan. 12, 2024. This remake was based on the musical that was made after the 2004 original film. This is a movie musical and does not take place after the events of the original movie. With this being said, it has a good mix of the musical and the original.
The movie starts with Cady (Angourie Rice), moving to the United States from Africa. She is put into a public high school after being homeschooled her whole life. When at school she notices all the cliques, but she gains the attention of Regina George (Renee Rapp), Karen Smith (Avantika), and Gretchen Wieners (Bebe Wood). With the help of Gretchen and Karen, Regina rules the school where she is feared and desired.
Cady becomes friends with two art kids, Janis and Damien, who are played by Auli’i Cravalho and Jaquel Spivey. They learn about Regina approaching Cady and tell her to play into this and act like she’s a part of Regina’s group to get inside information.
The movie got a 70% on Rotten Tomatoes and 62% on the audience score. Both the audience and critic reviews are very mixed. One audience member said, “As long as you can avoid comparing it to the original — and you don’t mind musicals — ‘Mean Girls’ is a fun watch with some strong performances.” According to one critic, “‘Mean Girls’ has spunk but never leaps off the screen like the original. What makes it work is its 20-year-old story of adolescent friendship, cruelty and forgiveness.”
I think that overall the movie was really good. It has its weaknesses, but they didn’t affect the movie necessarily. It had a good mix of both the musical and the original 2004 movie. This movie is definitely for a certain audience and it’s understandable why some people don’t like it. One of the biggest problems I see is that in some of the songs it sounds emotionless and lacks passion. The songs need to have more passion and emotion because, without that passion, the message does not come across the right way.
Even with the minor issues in the movie, I think that it’s good for a remake. Many things were done right and some of those things made up for the things done wrong.
