Have you ever watched ‘Mean Girls’ the 2004 teen comedy/drama movie and wished it included more musical numbers? If that’s you, ‘Mean Girls’ (2024) might be your solution. ‘Mean Girls’ (2024) is a remake of the 2004 version, which has been creatively turned into a musical. The movie follows Cady Heron as she transitions to life in a new school and country. Cady quickly makes friends with Janis ‘Imi ‘ike and Damian. She is then accepted into “the Plastics” group with Regina George (“the queen bee”), Gretchen Wieners, and Karen Shetty. Just like in the original movie, the Plastics are bullies, but most people in the school want to be like them. Cady works with Janis and Damian to sabotage the Plastics because of what they’ve done.
Overall, the remake was a pretty good movie. Angourie Rice played Cady Heron, Renee Rapp played Regina George, Bebe Wood played Gretchen Wieners, Avantika Vandanapu played Karen Shetty, Aaron Samuels was played by Christopher Briney, Janis ‘Imi ‘ike was played by Auli’i Cravalho and Damian was played by Jaquel Spivey. Obviously they couldn’t cast the same actors and actresses for the main characters because the movies were made twenty years apart, but Ms. Norbury and Mr. Duvall were played by the same actor and actress as in the original (Tina Fey and Tim Meadows). I thought all of the characters were played well and I think the directors did a good job with casting. The story is pretty much the same, but it is modernized which I really liked. There were also a lot of ties to social media, which is very relevant to our time and generation and I thought it was a good addition to the movie.
There was one major thing about the movie that I had a hard time getting on board with – it’s a musical. I thought that it was really awkward when the characters would randomly start singing and it didn’t seem to fit into the movie very well, but it wasn’t too bad. Other than that, there were a few minor details that were changed but it didn’t really make a big difference and some of the details helped to enhance the movie. The movie was inappropriate in some places, just like in the original movie. I definitely wouldn’t recommend this for kids but it is okay for teenagers and adults, so I agree with the PG-13 rating. If you liked the original movie, I would recommend watching the new version. If you like musicals but also like teenage dramas and comedies, then this is a great movie for you. Overall, I would give this movie a 4/5 rating, and I would definitely watch it again. I don’t know if I like the 2004 or 2024 version of ‘Mean Girls’ better, so it’s up to you to decide.
