the mistakes in the new Mean Girls movie | my review of Mean Girls (2024) musical film

I agree, Cady & all of her songs are the film's weakest links. Horrible changes that don't land. Quite a disappointing film.

But how did Cady win queen in this version?

We did so well with Tick Tick Boom and Matilda. *Sigh*….Two steps forward, five steps back I guess.

I enjoyed myself when I saw the movie but I agree that it doesn't stand on it's own. It was a fun time and a decent update for modern teenagers but isn't really anything more than an echo of the original. I liked it and will watch it again when it's on streaming but it's not doing anything groundbreaking.

as someone who is the target demographic for this film, it fell extremely flat. the modernisation of it felt so forced and not rlly needed tbh. i watched the original mean girls for the first time in 6th grade, at a time where i had moved schools and was having a hard time not channeling my jealousy of other girls into anger towards them. the original mean girls genuinely helped me realise sm about myself and my actions and i think it still is such a timeless, solid film to this day. i honestly would have preferred if they didn’t make so many desperate attempts to modernise this movie, i thought it would have worked a lot better.

Karen should have restarted her phone entirely when she started over. It would have been much funnier. In the musical she walks off stage in silence and comes back and it’s a very hilariously awkward silent moment.

I wish film directors would stop remaking films.

I think that they wanted to make regina the main character in this movie.

I rewatched the original movie after this one, and I feel like one of the things this movie really missed the mark on was the different types of representation that the original movie had. I cannot properly put into words how much it means to me that one of the notable side characters is a woman of color who uses a wheelchair and that she's one of the people who Cady makes a point to acknowledge and give a piece of the crown. Nor can I overstate the importance of Cady making sure to acknowledge and give a piece of the crown to a girl who is fat. Don't get me wrong, the original movie is far from perfect with diversity and representation, and this one did better in several ways on that front, but I think the original movie did an excellent job of reflecting that there are different and disabled bodies in the world who are put on the sidelines while the thin ablebodied White girls are top of the popularity food chain. Meanwhile this movie did a great job casting people of color in significant roles, but I don't think that it cared about showing different body types or disability as something that could even exist in the background, and that's a big let-down for me.

As someone who saw the original movie once (and didn’t particularly like it) and though the Broadway cast recording was okay (but had several songs I was happy were ultimately cut from the movie), I really enjoyed the movie. I can see how folks who had a genuine attachment to the earlier versions would be upset, but not having one I thought the movie was a lot of fun and I actually enjoyed the skewing of the music into more of a pop sound.

Les Mis movie was bad

Here is my take away. Theatre kids defended this movie before it came out because we wanted a movie adaptation of the stage show. But somehow this movie tried to be a shot for shot remake with wisps of the musical thrown in. So it really didn't please anyone.

I thought the Color Purple Musical movie was a much better adaptation.

I didn’t hate this film but didn’t love it. I hated that they cut both of Damian’s songs from the musical, and the musical numbers introducing Gretchen and Karen. I left the theater mostly dazed and confused wondering what I just watched and thinking about it and where things were off

I went in with low expectations after seeing the Broadway tour and not being super impressed with the musical itself (multiple sounding issues, and other problems the entire run at the theater it was at for a few days), and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Anjourie was fine, but the rest of the cast was blowing past her, and I still think casting Jenna Fischer to use her for five minutes was a waste.

To be fair, as fun as the stage musical is, it is the root of a lot of the story problems since it also felt like a companion piece to the original film.
I enjoyed the 2024 film for what it is.

I enjoyed it, but like, not in a way where I will revisit it over and over again. I'll probably watch it again once it's streaming and then maybe in another 5-10 years. It gave me the vibe of some of those live musicals that were being televised a few years ago. Like, I enjoyed the moment of watching and pointing out fan service (although, this movie felt burdened by trying to fan service two different works) comparing what I like and don't like, but they usually don't tend to stick with me 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yes! I thought that exactly about them taking Cady's lines away from her in Apex predator. It really feels like she looses agency and self awareness. Like stuff is just happening to her rather than her actively participating and making choices.

I think what seems to be off putting to most people is in the marketing the plastics and Regina are the main characters instead of cady them cutting her musical lines reinforced it so I could see how people could look at this and be like why didn’t they just write something new instead. It being marked like a remake didn’t help

Another movie adapted to stage musical adapted to movie musical that is contemporaneous with the current Mean Girls movie musical is The Color Purple. Its title remained constant throughout all adaptations.

How do you edit your videos?

At least we can all agree this is better than mean girls 2😂!

This movie is great promo for the musical west end transfer !😅

I love it I wish they not cut “Stop”

I hadn’t seen the source material before watching this movie so I liked it a lot given this was the first time I was exposed to this story

The breakdown over the "'o's" in Mrs. George's handle made me CACKLE, so thank you.😂

I don't understand why they cut "Where Do You Belong?" and "Stop", those 2 numbers would have been a great addition to the story. I would have loved to see more of Jaquel Spivey.

from watching the trailer I would never have known it's a musical, seems like something guarenteed to piss people off :(
Also, in the original the plastics stand out, in the trailer everyone looks a lot more similar?

someone w the same passion about the cooooolmom handle!!! i also wondered where the Os go

I just have to point this out because SO many of you critics keep saying this. In the original movie, Janice was never “hinted at” as being a lesbian. She told Regina she was LEBANESE and Regina, being an idiot, took that as lesbian. She was never a lesbian. THAT is why she makes the joke about it at the trust fall group and that is why she ends up with the math nerd at the end of the movie. HE knew that. See, this is why the musical should never have been made into a movie. The jokes have been edited into some weird family friendly horror, the best songs were cut and suddenly Kady has no father. Thats a nope.

Great video! I’d love to see a video on The Color Purple adaptation, another member of the movie->musical->movie musical pipeline 💖

No color purple review?

I'm not a huge fan of the original movie but it is iconic. The music from the Broadway version isn't great except maybe apex predator and it sounds like they completely stripped the updated movie of all the feeling and fun of the original...Story or music, at least do something well.

On the point of the kids at the school all being jerks, I think one of the reasons they didn't seem so bad in the original was because there were times where you could see that they were the lesser of two evils, the other evil being Regina.

Even though they were mean to Cady, we sympathized with them in scenes like the one where Regina makes fun of the girls skirt, because we feel bad that the girl is being bullied. In this movie, I don't think there's any explicit times where Regina really judges or attacks her fellow classmates, (besides the burn book ofc) but in the original film that helped the theme of women being pitted against each other.

In the new film, it seems like Regina's only nasty and mean to the people inside of her friend group and Janis. Janis is the only person outside of the plastics that is specifically targeted by Regina in any way. So i think we'd be able to feel bad for the other junior girls if they were actually bullied by Regina more clearly.

is a big flop and very
forgettable

My biggest complaint of the film was that they cut so many musical numbers

This movie is so much more successful as a piece of entertainment than the stage show, which I did not love. Cady was problematic on stage as the film, I'm not sure that role works without Lohan playing her. I certainly didn't like the Broadway Cady. Also, the stage show, like most "modern" musicals, have too many songs anyway. The movie seems to have the right amount of songs. And for the first time ever...Besides his opinions about the marketing, it feels like Mickey Jo is actually making up reasons to dislike this terrific movie...and I don't know why. The world of the film is much more heightened than the original. He has to have recognized that. Doesn't really matter, the movie is doing very well. The audience seems to get what Mickey thinks is missing.

This movie is so much more successful as a piece of entertainment than the stage show, which I did not love. Cady was problematic on stage as the film, I'm not sure that role works without Lohan playing her. I certainly didn't like the Broadway Cady. Also, the stage show, like most "modern" musicals, have too many songs anyway. The movie seems to have the right amount of songs. And for the first time ever...Besides his opinions about the marketing, it feels like Mickey Jo is actually making up reasons to dislike this terrific movie...and I don't know why. The world of the film is much more heightened than the original. He has to have recognized that. Doesn't really matter, the movie is doing very well. The audience seems to get what Mickey thinks is missing.

I actually really liked it … 🙈 Like is it going to be the stage version, no, but it never was going to be. It reminded me of rock of ages the film and rock of ages on stage - both are good on their own merit and serve different functions. In terms of the peformannces specific, I think Renee Rapp is worth going to see it alone, and the other members of the cast give good musical performances. A fantastic young and diverse cast who clearly have oodles of talent.

Hi my girlfriend took me to mean girls 2 not planned we go to the movies when we have the opportunity so I liked it even though not my kind of movie in my opinion there is a moral basic of how people treat male or female and the effect of bullying on basically normal people just my opinion

I think the reason I'm not too fond of modern movies set in high school is because of the stereotypes of Gen Z. Now, I know Mean Girls is literally a movie based on the stereotypes of cliques in general, but I see this in every single new movie that has come out. I'm not even in High School anymore, I graduated in 2022. I'm turning 20 this year. Regardless of that fact, I HATE how directors make it seem like our entire life revolves around social media. I'm sure it does for some people, but not in the ways they make it seem to be in new movies. We don't make posts about certain popular people in our school or anyone in general to just shit on them. We may post a fight, but that's about it. Most of the time, we literally don't give a shit. We gossip like normal people... between friends. It just makes me cringe. They portray us as brain-dead or something.

Went to see it tonight and a big group literally walked out after 5 minutes once they realised it was a musical. These people really exist! I have to say, I felt like I enjoyed it a bit more than you did, but I also don't really disagree with any of your points... Totally agree that Renee, Auli'i, Damien were the standouts, I loved their performances - I feel like this movie was mainly made to get Renee's Regina on screen lol. Gretchen and Karen I found OK but I felt like they didn't pop as much as their original movie counterparts. Cady was totally miscast as was Aaron - shocked to have read that his vocals were cut to get him to take the role, he did an OK job but it's not like he's some big name... I thought what you said about Cady's voiceover being missing was interesting as I think actually yes Cady was also underserved by the script and direction (that Stupid With Love verse, my god) which wasn't helped when paired with a somewhat unconvincing portrayal. I feel like her arc did not feel natural at all and you don't root for her or understand her - in the musical on Broadway she was great, Erika Henningsen was extremely likeable in the role.

There probably is an answer to the @CoolMom question as one fun detail I liked was Mrs George being one of the TikTok accounts in the Sexy scene lol. But wasn't looking out for the username :D

The thing with students being mean…. It’s very true! The surface level feeling of the song stars is how any apology feels in high school!

you've nailed it... again! I completely agree with your comments. Only to add that I was really sad they cut both of Damien's songs, because they were two of my faves from the show! :(

Mean Girls is coming to my local musical theater this season (touring production) so I’m gonna wait and see the stage version, then I might watch the movie but tbh I don’t see the appeal of any of this when the movie is so iconic. Also I don’t understand why they keep changing the stage versions sooo much when they make movie adaptations. Cutting out entire songs, making up new songs, it’s so weird. I agree with you that a lot of these adaptations seem embarrassed (except Les mis and cats who are so famous everyone knows). Little Shop of Horrors to me is the most famous “movie becomes musical becomes movie musical”.

Also I laughed soooo hard about your breakdown about the cool mom gag.

I’ve got a couple thoughts.
As a disclaimer, despite my love for the original movie (or maybe because of it) I’ve never been a big fan of the musical version, so for the most part I either didn’t notice the changes from stage to screen or didn’t care.

I actually think the fantasy sequence approach to the staging works pretty well even if Cady isn’t in every scene. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a show that takes the same approach to its musical sequences, and the audience understands that every musical number is ~somebody’s~ fantasy, even if it’s not the main character’s.

I have to agree that, without Cady’s narration or her solos, she’s weakened a lot as a character which is a huge shame. If the problem was that the actor didn’t have the range, I would rather her just sing the solos imperfectly. Her defining trait is her insecurity, so if she falters a bit in her vocal performance it could actually help the story.

I unfortunately have always loathed “Fearless.” In fact I think it’s the exact moment where I checked out listening to the original soundtrack. I don’t vibe with the generically inspirational pop musical tone, and feel that it undermines the purpose of the scene from the original film. Regina’s downfall is more of a dark victory for Cady than a celebration. Maybe there was a way to stage it that juxtaposed the irony of the girls celebrating the end of Regina’s reign, when in essence they’ve just appointed a new dictator, but I don’t think fans of the musical would be any more pleased with that outcome than what we got. I see your point about how the film fails to humanize the ensemble, but I think that could have been accomplished through bits of dialogue like the original film.

“Sexy” has always bothered me in the stage musical because it’s trying to change a straightforward joke, originally a crass jab about young girls participating in their own sexualization, to a commentary on modern feminism. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad concept, and the adjustments for the new film make it work better in my opinion. Gretchen’s line accusing Cady of slutshaming is a pretty clever illustration of how feminism becomes watered down, abstracted to the point of absurdity, and weaponized against women and girls. And the subtle change from “I expect to run the world in shoes I cannot walk in” to “watch me as I run the world” takes a condescending line that blamed the failures of feminism on girls and makes it a more lighthearted jab. Also, the new arrangement feels more like something Karen would listen and perform to, and the detail of her using a snapchat filter to become a mouse at the end after wearing mouse ears for the entire number is so perfectly Karen.

While I like that Janis is undeniably queer in this version (although I never doubted she was meant to be bisexual in the original film), it’s a shame that the girl she goes to prom with is basically an extra. They could have easily gender-flipped the character of Kevin so that Janis could, at the very least, end up with someone we recognize. Or better yet, have her go to Regina’s house to mend fences and end up going to the prom with her. After all, Regina’s social status has completely plummeted, meaning she has nothing to lose, and Renee Rapp has always said she played her as a closeted lesbian.

“I’d Rather Be Me” has always felt unearned coming from a character whose entire arc had revolved around her ambition to destroy Regina for starting a rumor about her. Like Taylor Swift singing “Shake It Off,” there’s something bitterly ironic about someone who clearly cares about her reputation and holds years-long grudges claiming to be unbothered by other people’s opinions. I think the new movie portrays Janis as less of a “mean girl” and more of a principled hater by making Regina’s betrayal of her a bit crueler.

I couldn’t agree more about the ending. Closing on a scene of Cady and Aaron kissing is such an egregious way to miss the point of the movie that I audibly gasped.

Finally, I disagree about Renee’s song being against the message of the film. Yes, it’s about self-love rather than kindness, but the lyrics play off the phrasing from the original quote and don’t stick to the same meaning. When Renee sings “we can share it, there’s enough for us all,” she’s making a point that you can be both confident and kind. Basically, Rapp is just delivering the same message as “I’d Rather Be Me” but with a much better hook and a Megan Thee Stallion feature.

Overall, I don’t think the new movie is perfect, but neither was the broadway show, and frankly, neither was the original movie. They’re all a bit messy and sloppy in places, and occasionally brilliant. As frustrating as that is, in a way, it feels right.

I enjoyed this film but it felt a bit unfinished. Renee was incredible and her world burn was amazing but if it was a different Regina I do t think I would like this film. Apex predator was just appalling. Some of the other songs weren’t great and you could tell that there weren’t many people in the film who could actually sing.

Great review, would love to hear your thoughts on the new Color Purple movie musical

the movie was so good, i’ve watched it 3 times and i love it. The songs were rly good too