Mean Girls (2024)

[Sarah 103]

I thought the musical remake deserved a separate thread/topic. 

[shantown]

I want to be excited for this, but I think it's not for me... I was more excited about the Walmart commercial with all the old characters! (Insert Millenial laughing face emoji here)

[Scarlett45]

On 11/10/2023 at 1:03 PM, shantown said:

I want to be excited for this, but I think it's not for me... I was more excited about the Walmart commercial with all the old characters! (Insert Millenial laughing face emoji here)

I’m excited! It’s got some great actors, music, and is more racially diverse. I am IN!

[methodwriter85]

They seem to be REALLY trying to hide that this is a musical. I think that could backfire pretty badly.

[Sarah 103]

18 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

They seem to be REALLY trying to hide that this is a musical. I think that could backfire pretty badly.

Especially since the fact that it is a musical is part of its reason for existing. It is not a shot for shot remake of the 2004 version. This is an adaptation of the Broadway Musical, which has some differences from the original movie. 

[Sakura12]

I got more excited watching the Mean Girls Walmart commercials then this trailer.

I also did not pick up it was a musical. They probably should lean into that more otherwise it looks like they are just recreating the original. 

[Sarah 103]

New trailer that actually makes it clear the new version is a musical. 

 

[kiddo82]

I've seen the musical and it's fun if you're a fan of the movie, if not 100% memorable.  I recently refamilarized myself with the cast album and I snort laughed at some Karen and Gretchen moments I forgot.  But I think the trailer here sets a darker tone while the actual music is pretty pop-Broadway.  I'm looking forward to it but the marketing is confusing.

[BetterButter]

 

[kiddo82]

I get that they probably didn't want to just cast all of the original supporting roles but I think Busy Phillips over Amy Poehler is a step down.  Ironically, Amy Poehler is more age appropriate now to play the mom of a 16 year old than she was 20 years ago.  

[Cranberry]

Good reviews so far, better than I expected from a "remake" (not really) of an absolutely beloved movie, and from a musical (their popularity waxes and wanes). It's at 73% on Rotten Tomatoes right now with 73 critics' reviews in so far. I've seen reviews from regular fans who went to the "On Wednesdays We Wear Pink" screenings as well, and the general impression seems to be that the music is pretty good, the choreography is excellent, Reneé Rapp (Regina George) steals the movie with Auli'i Cravalho (Janis) being the other standout, it pays homage to the original without being nostalgia bait, it updates the story to incorporate social media (Regina's Burn Book revenge spreads even more quickly online, for example), and it has some surprises toward the end.

I think I'll be seeing it this coming week. 

[Book Junkie]

I came here to see why they made this movie, as I did not realize it's a movie version of the musical. There's no music at all in the commercials I've seen, and it looked like it was a shot for shot remake. I might go see it after all.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 1/11/2024 at 12:24 PM, Book Junkie said:

There's no music at all in the commercials I've seen,

I've seen previews in theaters for it probably five or six times, and I didn't realize it's a musical.

[Browncoat]

I saw it this afternoon, and, like the musical "The Color Purple", some things had to be removed to make room for the music.  This is not necessarily a bad thing, and it's probably just as well that they omitted the "relationship" between Coach Carr and Trang Pak.  I missed a few good lines/situations from the original, but they mostly kept the best stuff.  I liked the addition of social media -- that was a nice update. 

I thought they should have kept Regina in a pink dress for Spring Fling, and I also hated the pink pants she wore near the beginning.  They were horrible pants!  Something else she wore was really bad, too, but I've forgotten what offended me so much. 

Cady's father is gone!  I know he didn't play a huge part in the original, but there's not even an explanation why her mother is a single mom!  I do wish they'd kept Amy Poehler as Regina's mom, too.  It was an interesting choice to have Regina's mom tell her about the Kalteen bars (rather than Shane Oman).  

I loved Damien!  He was awesome (and it's a good thing they kept, "Four for you, Glen Coco.  You go Glen Coco!").  Janis was great, too.  Really, almost everyone did a great job with what they had to work with.  And the singing was top notch.

I did like that Ms. Norbury and Principal Duvall are obviously together, though.  

So, overall, it was fine.  It won't replace the original in my mind, but I'm not mad I saw it.  As with Wonka, I probably won't seek it out, but if I run across it when I'm channel surfing, I won't change the station, either.  

ETA: I almost forgot -- I loved Lindsey Lohan's cameo!

Edited January 13 by Browncoat

[Cranberry]

I saw it today and liked it a lot! I felt like it had a good balance of talking scenes and musical numbers, and the choreography was great ("Someone Gets Hurt" had especially cool choreography with everyone freezing and shaking, "Sexy" was a ton of fun with all the costumes and the sex cancer joke, and "Revenge Party" was so bright and cheerful for a song that includes lyrics about stuffing someone's remains into a bag and throwing them in the river). A few of the numbers were a little boring, mostly Cady's, but it's not that Angourie Rice was bad -- she wasn't -- it's just that Cady's numbers aren't as big and fun as pretty much everyone else's, and Angourie doesn't have as powerful of a voice as Reneé Rapp/Auliʻi Cravalho/Jaquel Spivey. 

I loved how Reneé played Regina -- she was flirtier, edgier, more openly mean than Rachel McAdams' Regina. She really stole every scene she was in, and her voice was amazing in her musical numbers. "World Burn" is my favorite of hers, but they were all great.

I liked that they made Janis a lesbian; I always felt like she should have been. It's more of a betrayal for Regina to actually out someone and mock/ostracize them for being gay than it is to start a rumor that a straight person is gay. The change made Regina and Janis's backstory a lot richer. This Damian was excellent, too -- loved the little bit at the assembly with the fan, and his delivery of the iconic lines in the candy cane scene. (I also liked that the audience got to be Glen Coco.)

I thought they left in just enough from the original that this felt like a new take instead of a copy. I didn't feel like I was being nostalgia-baited (there were a few throwaway lines referencing the original, but the one big cameo was the closest they got to winking at and nudging us). The musical numbers set it apart even further. Nothing's ever going to surpass the original, but I'm definitely not mad they made this.

[shipmate]

I went in not knowing anything about the Broadway musical specifically, and really, really enjoyed it! Really good talent and it was fun visually and musically. Excellent, excellent cast!

[tennisgurl]

I have...really mixed feelings about this movie. I admit that I am terribly biased as Mean Girls is not only one of my favorite movies ever but it also came out at just the right time for me to really see myself in the themes and characters, so of course I went into this with a lot of trepidation. I think it had a lot of good aspects to it, especially its cast, but it was just missing that spark that the original had. Some of that might have been my nostalgia talking but it just did not have the same punch that the last one had. 

I think a big issue for me was that this movie had no real edge. There was still quite a bit of mean-ness going on and some darker comedy bits here and there, but to me this reeked of another remake that is trying desperately not to upset or offend anyone ever, trying to "fix" things that commentators have complained about in the years that followed its release. Mean Girls is certainly a mostly lighthearted wacky comedy, but it also showed how messed up and awful high school can be and how girls can be horrible to their own best friends, but this feels almost like the Disney Channel Original Movie version of the story where the movie is afraid to make anyone come off as too mean. When you take out the characters engaging in all that much of the slut shaming, homophobia, and the casual shittiness towards their friends, like the "three way call attack" and how they casually call each other slutty and annoying behind their backs, everything that made the movie feel so real, you miss out on the whole lesson about how wrong and hallow that is. I haven't been a teenager in awhile, but I cant imagine that teenage girls are still not calling each other bitches and sluts and other awful things that adults don't like admitting kids say, and without all that, its like there is no reason to learn a lesson. If no one is really that bad, than no one really has an arc and the movie doesn't really have a point. In the original, pretty much every girl has some mean moments, even generally nice characters like Karen and Janis even admits that she is also pretty mean just in a punk goth girl way, which is why the end is so important when everyone realizes how awful they've all been. This movie cuts out all the sex, all of the edgier jokes (even ones that aren't particularly offensive by modern standards) and takes a lot of the mean away so that no one can be too unlikable. 

I liked most of the songs alright, some were boring, some were really fun, some were those sort of "radio play" musical songs where the song has basically nothing to do with the actual story and exists to just be a song to be played as a single on the radio. I was watching a lot of those songs thinking "what all was cut from this story to make room for this? Cady and Regina's dads? Most of Miss Norbury's subplot about her life taking a downward spiral? The feeling that a whole year had passed?" This just felt so rushed, in the first movie Cady's turn from innocent to queen bee is pretty gradual but here it all seems to happen at once. Regina is embarrassed at Christmas and then Cady went from nice girl to mean girl like a switch was flipped. The cast was at least really good, you can see why Renee Rapp is becoming such a IT Girl, she has ridiculous amounts of charisma, and I did like some of the changes. I like that Miss Norbury and Principle Duvall are a couple, I thought there were a lot of good lines (especially from Damien) I like that Janis is a lesbian now and that it gives new context for why she hates Regina so much, I loved the Lindsay Lohan cameo, there really is a lot to like here, but it was hard to watch this and not think about how this makes me want to watch the original. 

Edited January 23 by tennisgurl

[Spartan Girl]

I haven’t seen this yet, but I am disappointed they cut “Stop” because that was my favorite song in the stage musical, and it definitely helped it retain the edge that this movie apparently was lacking. I mean, the photos about Karen getting tricked into sending into a guy when she was only thirteen was horrible, but her line “Maybe we should be teaching boys not to do that in the first place” got the biggest cheer out of the audience when I saw the touring production.

[Sarah 103]

16 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

I haven’t seen this yet, but I am disappointed they cut “Stop” because that was my favorite song in the stage musical, and it definitely helped it retain the edge that this movie apparently was lacking. I mean, the photos about Karen getting tricked into sending into a guy when she was only thirteen was horrible, but her line “Maybe we should be teaching boys not to do that in the first place” got the biggest cheer out of the audience when I saw the touring production.

I have not seen this yet and I am disappointed they cut “Stop” for a different reason. I understand the first movie came out in 2004 and they were aiming for  PG-13, but I was always upset/disappointed that while Damian was gay, there no hint of a romantic life. I wasn't expecting a hardcore sex scene with him, but they could have had an off-screen character that was a crush or an ex-boyfriend who has at least mentioned once and keep the PG-13 rating. Damien's mention of his summer crush in "Stop" satisfied that need. To me, it fixed a major problem I had with the 2004 movie. 

[Cranberry]

@Sarah 103 They worked a moment like that into this movie! And for Janis as well. Minor spoiler:

Spoiler

Damien dances with a theater boy at the Spring Fling, and Janis takes a girl as her date. I think Damien also exchanges flirty looks with the boy at another point in the film, although I don't remember the exact scene.

 

[Lazlo]

On 1/22/2024 at 8:19 PM, tennisgurl said:

I have...really mixed feelings about this movie. I admit that I am terribly biased as Mean Girls is not only one of my favorite movies ever but it also came out at just the right time for me to really see myself in the themes and characters, so of course I went into this with a lot of trepidation. I think it had a lot of good aspects to it, especially its cast, but it was just missing that spark that the original had. Some of that might have been my nostalgia talking but it just did not have the same punch that the last one had. 

I think a big issue for me was that this movie had no real edge. There was still quite a bit of mean-ness going on and some darker comedy bits here and there, but to me this reeked of another remake that is trying desperately not to upset or offend anyone ever, trying to "fix" things that commentators have complained about in the years that followed its release. Mean Girls is certainly a mostly lighthearted wacky comedy, but it also showed how messed up and awful high school can be and how girls can be horrible to their own best friends, but this feels almost like the Disney Channel Original Movie version of the story where the movie is afraid to make anyone come off as too mean. When you take out the characters engaging in all that much of the slut shaming, homophobia, and the casual shittiness towards their friends, like the "three way call attack" and how they casually call each other slutty and annoying behind their backs, everything that made the movie feel so real, you miss out on the whole lesson about how wrong and hallow that is. I haven't been a teenager in awhile, but I cant imagine that teenage girls are still not calling each other bitches and sluts and other awful things that adults don't like admitting kids say, and without all that, its like there is no reason to learn a lesson. If no one is really that bad, than no one really has an arc and the movie doesn't really have a point. In the original, pretty much every girl has some mean moments, even generally nice characters like Karen and Janis even admits that she is also pretty mean just in a punk goth girl way, which is why the end is so important when everyone realizes how awful they've all been. This movie cuts out all the sex, all of the edgier jokes (even ones that aren't particularly offensive by modern standards) and takes a lot of the mean away so that no one can be too unlikable. 

I liked most of the songs alright, some were boring, some were really fun, some were those sort of "radio play" musical songs where the song has basically nothing to do with the actual story and exists to just be a song to be played as a single on the radio. I was watching a lot of those songs thinking "what all was cut from this story to make room for this? Cady and Regina's dads? Most of Miss Norbury's subplot about her life taking a downward spiral? The feeling that a whole year had passed?" This just felt so rushed, in the first movie Cady's turn from innocent to queen bee is pretty gradual but here it all seems to happen at once. Regina is embarrassed at Christmas and then Cady went from nice girl to mean girl like a switch was flipped. The cast was at least really good, you can see why Renee Rapp is becoming such a IT Girl, she has ridiculous amounts of charisma, and I did like some of the changes. I like that Miss Norbury and Principle Duvall are a couple, I thought there were a lot of good lines (especially from Damien) I like that Janis is a lesbian now and that it gives new context for why she hates Regina so much, I loved the Lindsay Lohan cameo, there really is a lot to like here, but it was hard to watch this and not think about how this makes me want to watch the original. 

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt the film lacked real bite.

I do understand that attitudes have changed since 2004. Regina being homophobic in the first movie was meant to show her as callous even at the time, but it was also probably a pretty common attitude among girls her age (to say nothing of wider society - remember back in 2004 60% of Americans opposed same-sex marriage and only 31% were in favour.) Likewise the slut shaming was frankly very widespread and 'accepted'. So I do understand having a 2024 version of Regina spouting the same lines would hit harder, but I do think there was probably some sort of happy medium.

I'm also not sure how I feel about a film that went to a lot of effort to diversify the cast erasing Gretchen's Jewishness. That was weird.

That said the songs were bangers. I thought Janis was a gigantic hypocrite (also something I felt about her in the original movie) who deserved a lot more criticism for her 'meanness' but even given that her song was amazing. 

[Kel Varnsen]

Watched it last night and was happy they fixed something that always bugged me about the original movie. When all the girls are fighting about the burn book, and the principal pulls the fire alarm, in the original it sets off all the sprinklers. But sprinklers don't work like that; pulling a fire alarm doesn't set them off and they aren't designed for them all to go off at the same time. So I was happy here when Tim Meadows pulls the alarm and it didn't happen.

[Sarah 103]

On 1/14/2024 at 4:02 PM, Cranberry said:

I liked that they made Janis a lesbian; I always felt like she should have been. It's more of a betrayal for Regina to actually out someone and mock/ostracize them for being gay than it is to start a rumor that a straight person is gay. The change made Regina and Janis's backstory a lot richer.

I wished they had kept Janis's sexual orientation a question. It always annoyed me in the original that at the end you find out Janis is attracted to guys. I wanted a storyline where the audience is wondering is or she isn't and ultimately coming to the conclusion that it doesn't matter whether or not she's a lesbian. Outing someone or spreading lies about someone's sexuality are both bad.

[Spartan Girl]

I liked the first movie. I liked the stage musical.

But I did not like this, for all the other reasons stated. That’s all.

[Traveller519]

We streamed it tonight and both my wife and I enjoyed it as an homage to the original movie that still felt like it said on its own merits. Neither of us was familiar with the musical stage show. 

I thought all of the core six actors were very strong in their roles. Gretchen is a much more tragic character this go around. Karen is a lot of fun. Damien feels more like a real person than a walking stereotype. Busy Philipps as Renee Rapp's mother is perfect casting.

It is interesting seeing what a different experience High School is 20 years later with the advanced of smart phones and social media. The film captured that well.

We did miss the post script catch up on where the girls ended up the following year.