"Johnny Betts is a rude 'abnoxious' jerk who needs to be 'punced' in the face."- A grammatically-challenged non-fan
	Movie Review - Mean Girls     (What this rating means)       Director: Mark S. Waters Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert, Courteny Chase, Tim Meadows, and Tina Fey Rated: PG-13 (sexual content, language and some teen partying) Length: 97 minutes Genre: Comedy Website: Mean Girls PLOT Cady Heron (Lohan) is the new kid in school, and although she initially eats her lunch in a bathroom stall, she is soon befriended by the Plastics, the most popular girl group in the school. Cady has also made friends with a couple of outcasts, and at the advice of Janis (Caplan), Cady decides to join the Plastics in order to get some good dirt on them. Cady soon realizes how shallow the group is, but as her popularity grows she starts to become just like them. Cattiness ensues. JOHNNY'S TAKE I'm not the type of guy who sees "Mean Girls" on the marquee and says, "Booooooooooyeah! Bring on the comedic stylings of Tina Fey, baby!" But I'm not exactly the demographic the movie is trying to reach either. Despite all that, I actually enjoyed "Mean Girls." My sides were never in danger of being in pain due to excess laughter, but it's a fairly decent movie. If you were to ask me my thoughts as I strolled out of the screening (trying to look as manly as a guy who just saw "Mean Girls" can look), then I'd respond with, "It's not too bad." And it's not. But it's not great either. Lindsay Lohan does a good job as the new kid in school. Having transferred from home school, she's not hip to the latest slang, and she displays her innocence with cutesy charm. "Shut up!" one of her new friends says in the way all the hip kids say. "I didn't say anything," Lohan sheepishly replies. "Awww, she's so cute," responds the audience. I also liked her transition from moist-eyed newbie to full-blown Plastic. Speaking of the Plastics, they all do a decent job, but the characters have the tendency to drift into the realm of the "cartoonish." For example, the dumb blonde (Chase) is just a little bit too clichéd at times. Does anybody think the ol' "I'm psychic, I have ESPN" joke is funny? Somebody does, because I've heard it more than once, but I hate that joke. Whoever initially came up with that joke deserves a nice, solid punch to the brain. However, the dumb blonde has one of the best lines in the movie when she finds out that Lindsay is from Africa and asks, "Why are you white?" Fans of "Party of Five" will be happy to see that Claudia (Chabert) is all grown up and wearing short skirts now. Meanwhile, Scott Wolf is somewhere reminding a producer or a director that he was "the guy in 'Party of Five' that looked a little like Tom Cruise." So far, it's not working to his advantage. My biggest disappointment is that the movie isn't as mean-spirited as I was hoping it'd be. With the title of "Mean Girls," I was expecting one big, long catfight. But the girls really aren't all that mean. Sure, they do some catty things, but it was stuff like convincing a girl that a "weight gain bar" was actually a "weight loss bar." The result? The girl eats a lot of them and gains weight. A little mean, maybe, but not all that biting. I did like the competition between Lohan and McAdams, and it was fun watching them try to outdo each other in order to remain the most popular, but my friends and I did meaner stuff to each other. I'll never forget the time Baker's Dozen, Walker, and Carlson wrote a fake note from me to this girl named Mary. They saw me talking to Mary one day, but they took it the wrong way. So they decided forging a note would be really funny. They wrote all sorts of things like, "Your eyes are green, and so is the grass. I really like you Mary, I think you have a nice ... sense of humor." That was one of the more innocent things they wrote. Plus, they included an expired McDonald's coupon in the letter as a "gift" from me. Thanks guys, nice attempt at trying to thoroughly embarrass me. Oh, but I had the last laugh. My friend Alicia wrote a note for me and signed it as "Mary." Then I talked to Carlson (who was good friends with Mary) about how Mary wrote me a letter and had some not-so-nice things to say about him and his involvement with the forged letter. Sure enough, the plan worked like a charm. Carlson stole my note, read it, and then profusely apologized to Mary about the whole ordeal. She had no idea what he was talking about, and this was the first time she found out he was involved in the fake letter. Now he was REALLY embarrassed. It was a thing of beauty. Anyway, the worst part of the movie is the ending. This is the point where things fall apart. My guess is it was weighed down by all the sap oozing from the dialogue. The whole speech about how everybody is a prom queen had my eyeballs doing backflips. Seriously, it's one of the cheesiest endings I've seen in a movie this year. Just a step above the ending of "The Prince and Me." Oh well, the performance of Tim Meadows as the reserved, soft-spoken principle, coupled with Lindsay Lohan's likeable screen presence, mixed with some genuinely funny, politically incorrect humor keeps "Mean Girls" a step ahead of the typical "teen comedy." Plus, a movie featuring a rapping Indian mathlete can't be too bad. MAMA'S APPROVAL I think it's safe to say that this isn't exactly my mom's type of movie. The profanity isn't too bad, but there is enough sexually related humor (and short skirts) to warrant keeping the small kids at home for this one. Teenage girls should really like it though. TRAILER COMPARISON The trailer gives you a good idea of what to expect. However, the movie wasn't as stupid as I thought it would be after I initially saw the trailer. THE GIST I can't give "Mean Girls" a full recommendation, but it's not one I would recommend avoiding either. I'd say just don't spend too much money on it or go out of your way to see it. Teenage girls and anybody familiar with the inner workings of high school cliques will probably enjoy it the most. It's not as drenched in biting sarcasm as it should be, but hey, at least it's not as fluffy as it could be either. Just don't expect a great movie with one aisle-rolling joke after another and you should at least have a pleasant, harmless time at the movies. Just watch out for the bus on your way home.	RETURN TO HOME PAGE Ghouls Eagle Eye Righteous Kill Tropic Thunder Traitor Death Race Star Wars: Clone Wars The Dark Knight Journey to the Center of the Earth Hancock Weekend Results: 1. Beverly Hills Chihuahua($29,300,465) 2. Eagle Eye($17,709,817) 3. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist($11,311,751) 4. Nights in Rodanthe($7,368,259) 5. Appaloosa($5,050,310)

[ Home | Movie Reviews | Memphis Theaters | Movie Horror Stories | Media Musings | What's Wrong With People? | The Lobby ] Copyright © 2004 The Movie Mark. All Rights Reserved. No reproduction of these reviews or any of the original material on this site is allowed without prior permission from Johnny Betts. Comply or suffer the consequences of Johnny's size 11 biker boot. Wanna be a Movie Mark? Send Johnny Betts an email (johnny_betts@hotmail.com) to be added to the list or complete: The Movie Mark Questionnaire. IQ-100 READERS WITH DOUBLE DIGIT IQS STRONGLY CAUTIONED Some Humor May Be Too Sophisticated For People With Sub-100 IQs INTENSE HUMOR AND SEXY REVIEWING