Movie Review: Mean Girls

Stars: 2 out of 5

Pros: A few laughs; interesting early set up

Cons: Most jokes fall flat; climax unrealistic preaching

The Bottom Line: 

What few laughs there are

Do not justify time spent

Watching this movie

When You Become Obsessed with the Enemy, You Become the Enemy

I remember seeing the previews for Mean Girls and hearing good reviews and thinking I needed to see it.  But life got in the way and I wound up only now catching it on TV.  I'm glad I didn't spend any money on it because it didn't live up to the hype.

Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) is the new girl in school.  Since she's spent most of her sixteen years on earth homeschooled in Africa, attending an American high school is quite the culture shock.  She does make friends quickly with Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese).  But she also catches the eye of the Plastics, a snobby clique lead by Regina George (Rachel McAdams).

Janis is anxious to take Regina and the other two Plastics down a few notches, so she talks Cady into joining the trio to sabotage them from the inside.  Cady soon discovers that she actually likes being friends with the Plastics.  And with Janis and Damian.  Can she maintain her double life?  Does she want to?  And what will happen when things start to fall apart?

The movie is billed as a high school comedy.  I laughed a few times, but nothing major.  Many of the jokes involved sexual humor.  Guess I should have expected that from a PG-13 film.  I very rarely find those jokes funny, and this was no exception.  When the jokes were supposed to be at how the characters were treating each other, I also didn't see the humor, finding them painful instead.

In spite of this, I got caught up in the story.  Watching Cady attempt to balance her undercover mission with her true desire to be friends with Regina and the Plastics was fascinating.  I kept thinking of the quote from Babylon 5 I used as my title as events kept unfolding.

Even though I wasn't really laughing, the plot was still shaping up to be very good with some gently injected morals until the climax.  They threw everything they had been working toward out the window in favor of an unrealistic and preachy scene that left me very disappointed.

There's only one actor I blame for the whole thing, and that is Tina Fey.  She was great as one of Cady's teachers, but she also wrote the script.  And the script is where the problem lies.

It certainly isn't with the actors.  When Lindsay Lohan is on, she is a very capable actress, and that's certainly the case here.  Even when Cady behaves very badly, she makes us like her.  Rachel McAdams is dead on as Regina.  Lacey Chabert and Amanda Seyfried are wonderful as the other Plastics with Amanda getting most of my laughs.  Lizzy Caplan and Daniel Franzese are also quite good as the other group of friends.

Which is why I wish I could recommend this film.  While it is mildly entertaining, the lack of laughs and the poorly executed climax make Mean Girls worth skipping.