Cast: Angourie Rice, Renee Rapp, Auli’i Cravalho, Jaquel Spivey,
Avantika, Bebe Wood, Christopher Briney, Jenna Fischer, Busy Philipps, Tina
Fey, Tim Meadows
Screenplay: Tina Fey
Running Length: 1:52
MPAA Classification: PG-13 (Language, Sexual Content)
U.S Release Date: 1-12-24 (wide)
Genre: Comedy/Musical
Let me start by saying that I have never seen the Mean Girls musical and while I fully acknowledge that seeing something on a screen is a vastly different experience than seeing it live, after seeing this adaptation, I'm not going to be rushing to buy tickets anytime soon. Although this version is by no means unwatchable, a lot of what made the 2004 film such an enjoyable concoction seems to be missing. Gone are some of the biting one-liners and hilarious side-characters that gave life to the original. Instead, we get forgettable musical numbers coupled with uninspired dance sequences. Take out the musical aspect of the film and this feels like a poor imitation of the 2004 film.
For the most part, much of the main storyline has remained intact which centers on 16-year-old Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) who was homeschooled for most of her life while living in Kenya with her mother and is now entering high school for the first time. After a not-so-great first day, she quickly befriends two outsiders, Janis (Auli'i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey). They help her navigate the treacherous waters of North Shore High until one day she gets invited to sit with Regina George (Renee Rapp), the Queen Bee of the school, along with her two sidekicks, Karen (Avantika), and Gretchen (Bebe Wood) at the lunch table. They quickly take Cady under their wing where at first she's reluctant, but when Janis and Damian convince her to keep hanging out with the so-called "plastics" so they can mess with their dynamic and laugh about them behind their backs. It doesn't take long, however, for Cady's popularity to rise and when she develops a crush on Regina's ex, Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney), it causes some friction between the plastics and that's when the claws really come out.
Some of the original cast has returned (although they feel like shadows of their former selves), with Tina Fey and Tim Meadows reprising their roles. The rest of the cast is all new, and except for Auli'i Cravalho, everyone else pales in comparison to their predecessors. Auli'i Cravalho is the only one to bring energy to her role (not to mention she has the one decent song in the whole film) with her fiery performance and whenever she was onscreen, that's when the film slowly started to become more enjoyable. Angourie Rice is fine as Cady; she has no problem with her early scenes and actually makes an appealing lead, but when her character transitions to full-on bitch mode, she struggles. Part of that has to do with the fact that her transition happens too quickly, but she's also just not convincing enough like Lindsay Lohan was. Renee Rapp, Avantika, and Bebe Wood all disappoint as the plastics. Their performances aren't bad, but compared to Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, and Lacey Chabert, they never rise to their levels. Everyone else fades into the background.
There is an attempt to inject a social media aspect into the film to update it to the current times - but anytime the film does something interesting or hit its stride, someone starts singing or dancing. This wouldn't have been an issue if any of the songs had been memorable. There's not a single hummable tune and don't even ask me if I can recall any of the lyrics. It's hard to understand why this film was even necessary in the first place. This version falls considerably short in almost every aspect when compared to the original. Throw in the terrible songs and the filmmakers' inability to properly blend them into the overall storyline, and it just makes the studio's decision to release it in theaters instead of Paramount+ (where it was supposed to debut originally) even more bizarre. That would have been a far better place for something this haphazardly assembled.
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