Product Description

Having been home-schooled and raised in the African bush, Cady is unprepared for the cut-throat politics of public school.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 9-AUG-2005
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6991 in DVD
• Brand: Paramount
• Released on: 2004-09-21
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Special Edition, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English, German, Swahili, Vietnamese
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 97 minutes

From The New Yorker
A new term at high school is even more of a trauma for Cady (Lindsay Lohan) than it is for everybody else, since she is not just an out-of-towner but an out-of-Africa, her parents having raised her as a bush baby. Now she is confronted with the complexity of school loyalties and fads, which-as we are reminded by innumerable slo-mo sequences with an added roartrack-are twice as bloodlusty as the lives of African fauna. Her first friends are Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese), who dare her to hang out with the second wave-a trio of acid beauties, led by the queenly Regina (Rachel McAdams). The twist is that Cady, in pretending to fall for their spoilt ways, really does fall for them, and the problem is that we ourselves never fall for this notion of Cady as weak-willed. Though the movie sags in the second half, your spirits are kept up by the steady flow of slashing lines-courtesy of Tina Fey, who not only wrote the script but also stars as Cady's teacher. If anything, the grownups-especially the school principal, played by Tim Meadows, of whom the picture needs much more-tend to nudge these pushy teen-agers into the wings. The movie, produced by Lorne Michaels and directed by Mark Waters, is often funny, but it was conceived by people who are plainly wiser and more worldly than their target audience, and there's something about that discrepancy that, you know, totally sucks. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

I actually caved in...
After an adamant boycott of everyone and everything teeny-bopper (aka Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan), I decided that maybe I shouldn't be so prejudiced. Maybe these movies are alright.

So I rented "Mean Girls" not expecting too much - just a chick flick with a stupid plot. Boy, was I wrong!

The film could have been bad. Worse than bad - it could have been awful. But it wasn't. It turned the other way, entering the dark world of the Plastics.

Tina Fey shows an excellent grip over satire and comedy in not only her performance, but also her screenplay. I also felt it smart to utilize the talents of other SNL mates, Tim Meadows and the glorious Amy Poehler, who all seem to have excellent chemistry and add so much comedic parts to the film.

Fey portrays high school life in a vicious, yet addicting, satire of the teenage years. There are parts to the film that I think everyone is able to relate to, whether you're at the butt of the joke, or you're the one divvying them out. Either way, you can't help but laugh, or say, "That's so fetch!"

And like I said, a film like this is fragile territory (especially after Lohan's poor film choices lately...), but I feel that all of the actors pulled it off so well.

If you're looking for a light, hilarious satire, look no further than "Mean Girls," and see what everyone's talking about...

Mean Girls
This was my fourth time watching Mean Girls. I really like it and think it shows the high school scene through a girl's point of view. This movie's about a young girl who enters high school for the very first time. 16-year-old Cady Heron has been home-schooled all her life. Till now that is. She befriends Janis Ian and Damian, who informs her on who is "naughty or nice" in the school. They also tell Cady about, and to stay away from, The Plastics. One day, Cady gets invited to sit with The Plastics for lunch. Regina George, the leader of The Plastics (aka "The Queen Bee") invites Cady to eat with them for the rest of the week. Cady agrees, and then afterwards tells Janis and Damian the news.

When Cady falls for Regina's ex-boyfriend Aaron Samuels, Regina agrees to talk to him for Cady. At a Halloween party, as Regina is talking to Aaron, she inadvertently kisses him. Heartbroken, Cady and her two friends plan to destroy Regina (emotionally of course). They do all kinds of stuff to breakdown Regina's "image".

This is a really good movie with a great cast. Lindsay Lohan plays an outstanding role as Cady. Regina George, played by Rachel McAdams (also starred in The Notebook) is awesome at her role also. Her role was also very believable, as if she was a real life "Plastic".

P.S. When I first saw this movie, I had no idea Rachel McAdams played the part of Regina George. I was in complete shock when I heard.

What's with suddenly jacked-up review ratings?
The previous time I checked (and for a long time before), the "most helpful" reviews of MEAN GIRLS were hanging in or slowly increasing in the 50s or so range of "helpful votes". Then suddenly today I looked and the "most helpful reviews" of MEAN GIRLS show over a thousand "helpful" votes for the highest and hundreds of "helpful votes" for many others. As for the now "most helpful" reviewer, who said he "caved in" and saw the movie, one can only wonder if a bunch of his friends also caved in and flooded the site with votes; only it wouldn't just be for him; so many other OLD and NEW reviews suddenly far exceed the 50-some votes held by the reviews most highly rated just awhile back. And those last-mentioned reviews ARE probably the most intelligent ones, I think, and their ratings have hardly increased. Some of the most insightful comments were by those reviewers, including Robyn Jamil-Walid, Tanya Jasmine Tucker and Ashley Judd (probably NOT the actress by the same name; the review is way too smart).

As for the movie, I suspect it has a good chance of being sadly, Lindsay Lohan's last really good movie. It came out about when a firestorm of Lindsay-bashing was suddenly becoming the in thing. Whether the bashing was at all deserved, it's sad as it will no doubt affect how Lindsay will be perceived as an actress and what roles she'll get. MEAN GIRLS may be the last time her talents will be appreciated for what they are in casting. And if her alleged spiral of self-destructive behavior, starting about the same time the film came out, is really anything that it's cracked-up to be, it will sadly adversely affect her in various ways, including probably her acting ability.

One can hope Lindsay will recover some of her remarkable acting talent and appreciation for it for what it is, but if not, that is all the more reason to cherish this movie for possibly the zenith of her career. This is Lindsay at her best, for all said by one mysteriously enormously highly raated review, that calls it "so not Lindsay". Her performance is likeable as a not perfect, but generally good-willed high school student struggling to fit in with no prior experience in formal schooling. But also essential to making the movie work are performances as the other students, most notably Regina, Gretchen, Karen, Janis and Damian, but some students with only bit parts are also quite impressive. They form an image of high school that I dare say many of us can relate to, even if criticisms that the movie is less that squeakily realistic are judged to have some value. If one's memories of high school include being tormented by "queen bee" types like Regina, then one must surely find this film gratifying. If one does not so relate, one must, to be honest, suspect that that person WAS more like such a "queen bee" type, in which case such a person also deserves to see this movie, even if it hurts.

If there is a weak point in the movie it is in Tina Fey's unfortunate decision to be both the screen writer and the one who plays the character she most set out to make the film's voice of wisdom. The results of trying to make her character that are faltering at best, and indeed lend credibility to the criticism in one review that the movie is Tina Fey's vanity project.