Decker

RocShemp

Wouldn't such deceit lead to extreme box office drop offs due to negative word of mouth? Unless these movies are so ultra low budget that they can make a hefty profit during the first week or weekend of release, it seems a recipe for disaster.

Draven

My guess isn they are counting on the die-hards to see it opening weekend and then word of mouth to keep it going.

rocket1312

My question is if audiences supposedly hate musicals, and the studios don't want to admit they made a musical, then why bother to make a musical?

Draven

I think executives hate musicals. Audiences seem to like them fine.

dex14

Out this week. Reviews: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mean_girls_2024

DJariya

I saw the early access screening tonight at AMC. They gave out this poster. I’m not a fan of the design




But, overall I liked the movie. Had a lot of laughs and some fun characters. Not all the songs were good, but they were mostly well performed. Renee Rapp was great. She was the highlight. And whoever decided to cast Busy Philipps as her Mom. That couldn’t be more money. But, I want to make something clear. This is 100% a musical. They break out into song probably every 5 to 10 minutes with maybe a few extended stoppages. If you don’t like musicals, this is not for you. One of the biggest laughs was when Tina Fey almost broke out into a song, but stopped herself because she can’t sing.

I saw it in a sold out Dolby Auditorium. There was a lot of pink being worn tonight as well. There was a short intro from Tina Fey thanking everyone for seeing it.

Overall, I’d give it a B and an 8 out of 10. I’m not the biggest Mean Girls fan, but I thought this was done well and different enough to be a companion to that movie.

There is a cameo. But it shouldn’t be too hard for you to figure out who it is. It got a big applause when it happened.

Bluelitespecial

Another movie where everyone shows up in droves and wears pink. YIKES!!

davidh777

I figure the goal is to trick people into seeing it and hoping they end up liking it anyway.

I like to support musicals but I rarely go to the theater anymore so not sure if I want to make the effort for this one,

RichC2

I mean, there's no hiding the fact this was intended as a straight to streaming movie.

Decker

That looks like a giant version of one of these

Draven

Watching the credits roll right now and I LOVED it. The original movie is in my top 10 and I’m a huge fan of the musical - it’s one of the best shows I’ve seen on Broadway.

Loved the whole cast, the updates (like including social media) and the arrangements weren’t just straight rips of the Broadway tracks.

I laughed out loud multiple times (within literally 10 seconds of it starting). What a blast! I was worried it would feel like a streaming movie but it’s plenty big for the big screen.

Shannon Nutt

I hadn't seen the original since it came out in theaters, so I'd forgotten most of the plot/dialogue. I liked the movie quite a bit - it's not great, but it's fun enough for a January movie. I'd give it a B-. I'll be honest - I liked it more than Barbie...it was consistently fun throughout, where I only liked the first half of Barbie.

Decker

It was pretty good, not great but I enjoyed my time well enough. I'm a sucker for musicals and just saw this one on stage early last year. It's mostly well cast, but the camera work wasn't great and felt sloppy in parts, especially in the beginning. Rapp was fantastic, as was the woman who played Janice -- who I didn't realize until the credits rolled (though it's mentioned here) was the same one who played Moana -- she has a great voice, but didn't look Hawaiian in this at all (I've never seen any of her acting before). The mom casting was perfect -- Busy Phillips looks just like Rapp and Jenna Fisher looks a lot like Rice.
I think their Karen was a huge miss though-- the one I saw on stage was hilarious and this one got no laughs at all in our Dolby Cinema theater which was surprisingly PACKED. Paramount made the correct calculations about bringing this to theaters and (I guess) about hiding the fact that it was a musical. It should do well this weekend, I suspect.
I also noticed that the pre-movie bit with Tina Fey showed the old logo with a musical note in the A. They have removed that from all the ads and marketing since.

Did anyone else get there early, before the trailers? We had to sit through a 5-10 minute short film that was actually an extended commercial for ELF makeup. It was so weird. And then, during the movie, we got more ELF makeup product placement. It was quite the barrage.

Daytripper

"Toy Story 2" was also meant to go straight to video. But along the way while making it, they realized they had something truly special. And decided it was worthy of a theatrical release. Smart move. All four were great but I think "2" is the crown jewel in the series.

RichC2

This was completed and then moved to theatrical. They started over with TS2.

​​​​​​but yeah I agree, TS2 is the best in the series.

Daytripper

Correct, I know "Mean Girls" was completed. Did they test the movie and the reaction was so positive that they decided to release it in theaters instead? Also, I read years ago that most of the original "TS2" was scrapped because they weren't happy with it. And while remaking it decided it was too good to go straight to video.

Decker

I was apparently right when I thought it would do well this weekend at the Box Office.

Abob Teff

Just got back from seeing it with my wife and youngest daughter . . .

I must be a teenage girl at heart, because there were about a dozen teenage girls (not all in one group) and me cackling hysterically at various parts throughout. That said, the humor is great, the cast is great, some of the cinematics and choreography are great (and some not so much) . . . but this really felt like it lacked any of the heart of the original. I can't point to what was cut out to make room for the songs, but you can tell crucial beats are missing that flesh out most of the characters' arcs.

The songs are OK, but nothing earthshaking (though the "Sexy" song had me rolling). Is it just me, or does "I Am Regina George" (or whatever the proper title is) sound like a modern Bond theme song?

I wish that this new version had brought some more original or new material to the table. For those that have seen the musical on stage, does it flow better than this movie did? This version felt like a high school production that has to keep moving moving and hitting its marks to keep moving and it never slows down to breathe in the world or the characters' skins.

I will vehemently disagree with Decker though. While they gutted most of Karen's arc and her purpose for being there (not the performance's fault), I thought her braindead portrayal was really good. I may be biased though, as I thought she was absolutely stunning and couldn't stop staring. Sorry, dirty old man syndrome.

joe_b

Yeah, it gives Skyfall vibes. Rapp sings it like Billie Eilish at the start, so some of the lyrics can be hard to understand.

I'll wait for the movie to hit streaming, but I've sampled the soundtrack and the songs are really not that great. I looked up who did the music and it's Tina Fey's husband, so that explains a lot. Angourie Rice sounds auto-tuned and her meek voice can barely deliver Cady's songs. I was surprised to hear the vocals drastically improve halfway through "I See Stars", but apparently the movie switches to another character performing the song at that point.

Off topic, but it's a pity no studio will touch a film adaption of the Heathers musical. It's such a better show than Mean Girls (and more popular with the TikTok crowd).

Draven

There are more musical moments in the stage version. For example, when Damian is going through all of the cliques at the beginning, that's a whole production number (and a big one to boot as it involves the whole cast). Plus a number of the songs were cut shorter - the musical runs well over two hours (and that's not including the intermission) so I'm not surprised they did some trimming. But they kept the best parts and had smart updates. Like in "Sexy", Karen walks out onto stage, starts her number, then stops, says let's me start over, completely exits stage, then walks back in and starts again. It's the funniest moment of the whole stage production but it only works on stage. How they updated that with social media was brilliant.

Also the musical has an incredible set - it's completely digitally projected but there is a physical set with doorways and extrusions. So they can transform it from Kenya to a school to a mall to a house with the touch of a button. And when the Plastics first enter, the color pink literally blasts the whole set. It's super neat. You can see a bunch of the things it can look like in this trailer.


Heathers is a fantastic show (I was cast as one of the dads in a local production but had to drop it due to conflicts) but it doesn't nearly have the popularity of Mean Girls.

joe_b

If your talking about the original film. But comparing musical to musical, Heathers spawned a few TikTok trends during lockdown and the original cast recording has way more streams on YouTube compared to Mean Girls. Riverdale even did a tribute episode.

TheAllPurposeNothing

At least you can see the taped stage show on Hulu, so it's out there in at least one form.

Decker

That's what I was referencing when I said Karen fell so flat. No laughs at all. And I don't think that was a smart update. Had she started singing for the camera, then stopped, walked off frame and started again, that would be a joke. Stopping a Tik Tok and restarting? That's not funny. Also couldn't hear her enunciate her lines well enough to make the lyrics fully understandable.
But to Abob's point, sure, she's pretty.

Draven

It got a pretty big laugh in my showing.