Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Mean Girls Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 3, 2024

It just wouldn't be another week at the movies (or on Blu-ray.com) without another "remake" or "reimaging" popping up for perusal. And here is the latest, which is Mean Girls, directed by the duo of Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., written by Tina Fey, who just so happened to (co-)write the original Mean Girls which released 20 years ago and remains today something of a cultural classic. This remake keeps the essential narrative elements and characters but updates it for modern times (it's amazing how much has changed in two decades) while also adding the trendy musical component where a solid 45 minutes of the film is comprised of, and the story told through, song and sometimes dance. Is it a necessary remake/re-imagining? Not really, but the film is solidly constructed, well-acted, and in many ways looks and sounds just like the original, down to some very fine little touches, while of course carving out its own identity, primarily through its music.

Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) is the new girl at school. And not only is she new to North Shore High School, she's new to any school. She's been homeschooled in Kenya, where she was raised, and she finds it difficult to fit in. There's really not a "place" or a "people group" for her, apart from the weird quasi-outcast duo of Janis ʻImiʻike (Auliʻi Cravalho) and Damian Hubbard (Jaquel Spivey). Yet somehow, against all odds, Cady finds herself suddenly within the elite of the elite of the school's cliques: The Plastics, a group of beautiful but not necessarily brainy alpha female sorts (who are "shiny, fake, and hard) which include Karen Shetty (Avantika) and Gretchen Wieners (Bebe Wood), both of whom are sycophant disciples of the group's leader, Regina George (Reneé Rapp). Meanwhile, Cady finds herself drawn to a boy in her math class (Christopher Briney) which, along with her unmatched math skills, could have a number of ramifications for her social life and the school's very social foundations.

Where the story goes from there will be more or less familiar to audiences who know the original movie, though to be sure there are some new directions and ideas but still the same essential core story at work. The film never really finds a unique identity in terms of plotting, but it does find its own identity in the musical elements, even if they are not necessarily new to the film, either. Mean Girls was turned into a musical stage production in 2017 which debuted on Broadway in 2018. The numbers are suitably catchy and add a spirit and uniqueness to the story that was necessary on the stage and, frankly, necessary for this remake/re-imagining, too; with the original such a well-known classic within its genre, a straight remake would have played with less impact and energy. Here, the story remains the same, but the music brings plenty of energy and allows this film to more easily share a space with the original, essentially offering a different take on the same material rather than the same take on the same material as a music-less film would have likely offered.

For this film, Reneé Rapp returns to play Regina after a stint of playing her on Broadway, but the rest of the cast is new (Tina Fey and Tim Meadows reprise roles from the original film). Aside from a few cameos (including from original film star Lindsay Lohan), the cast is new, but only modestly effective. There are not any memorable performances here as there were in the original. The Plastics feel, well, a bit more plastic than in the original, and not in a good way. There's a modest sense of "try-hard" with this group where the performances struggle to capture the "organic" sense of the "artificial" that the original cast members played so well. Angourie Rice is fine in the lead but, even with the film trying to capture its own vibe, the shadow of Lohan's career-defining performance always seems to be hanging over her work.

Mean Girls Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mean Girls was digitally shot but looks wonderfully filmic and satisfying. While the UHD is better, the Blu-ray is very, very good, offering first and most evidently, a terrific barrage of colors. The film takes place in a modern high school, so clothing colors are the most obvious tonal element in the film, and never do they disappoint. From blue jeans to pink tops and so many other colors in between, the colors are very expressive and well saturated. Of course, this extends to school colors as well, not to mention natural greens and other various colors throughout the film. Everything looks fairly neutral in temperature and contrast, and the image is very vivid indeed. Black levels satisfy, as do whites, while skin tones look spot-on. The image is a textural delight as well, yielding impressive clarity to faces and clothing, right down to the finest pore and line or fabric detail and stitch. Clarity abounds around the school and other locales, capturing every last nugget of detail for all they're worth at 1080p. The image is free of all but the slightest of noise while encode issues are essentially nonexistent. This is an A-grade image from Paramount.

Mean Girls Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mean Girls arrives on Blu-ray with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. This is not necessarily the sort of film one would expect to really benefit from an Atmos track over a more traditional 5.1 track or a slightly less traditional 7.1 track. There's not a lot of swooping action and intensive, hard core sort of audio output, but the added fullness and spaciousness -- the subtle overhead usage and the greater spatial usage and awareness -- help to offer the fullest and most comprehensive audio engagement available, even if the top layer is more about gentle support rather than prominent usage. Indeed, the overhead channels aren't used for any great and discrete material but help to bring a sense of absolute listening environment fullness to the listener, recreating school hallways, classrooms, cafeterias, and other locations where some of the more involved singing and environment elements take shape with very good engagement that does not prioritize the top but rather folds it into seamless perfection. Even some of the gentler environmental fill offers nicely lifted, if not very mild, support. The traditional surround wrap elements are more obviously integrated but still not used to discrete excess, again settling, and rightly so, to bring the stage to life, not to keep heads turning. The bulk of the music takes place up front, centered and stretched far out to the sides, yielding excellent coverage but also perfect prioritization and focus where it needs to be. Musical and vocal clarity are stellar, and the spoken word is also centered, well prioritized, crisp, and lifelike throughout.

Mean Girls Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Mean Girls includes a several extras. No DVD copy of the film is included, but Paramount has bundled in a digital copy code. This release ships with a non-embossed slipcover.

• A New Age of Mean Girl (1080p, 5:47): Re-imagining the original, casting, adding song and dance to the Mean Girls experience, incorporating social media into the story, and more.
• Song and Dance (1080p, 11:38): As the title suggests, this extra looks deeply at the dance choreography and the musical integration. It also explores the writing of various songs in the film and their place and purpose in the film.
• The New Plastics (1080p, 8:13): Looking at the new core four characters and the actresses who portray them. Also: favorite moments from the original film, which characters the cast relates to most, and more.
• Extended Scene (1080p, 1:18): "I'm Having a Small Get Together at My House."
• Gag Reel (1080p, 3:46): Humorous moments from the shoot.
• Music Video (1080p, 2:53): "Not My Fault" With Renee Rapp and Megan Thee Stallion.
• Mean Girls Sing-Along with Select Songs (1080p): With options to play the film in its entirety in karaoke or "sing along" mode or to simply play all of the songs in one grouping in sing alone mode (45:15).

Mean Girls Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Mean Girls is at once very much in the spirit of the original -- down to near perfect recreations of lines, moments, people, and places -- while also bringing a new sense of identity and direction through its music. Is it a necessary take on the story? Not really, but then the vast, vast majority of remakes or re-imaginings are not explicitly "necessary." Still, it finds its place alongside the original as an interesting and watchable companion piece. Paramount's Blu-ray delivers high end video and audio and an enjoyable scattering of extras. Worth a look.