Oddly enough I can find myself in a bad mood. I blame the existence of my bad moods consistently on mediocre films, mediocre performances, and sometimes just the bland acceptance of these things by humanity. I admit it, I can be pretty shallow.

At the same time something like Mean Girls comes along and it makes me think. Yes, a teen film makes me think which shows you the level of depth this review is going to be. It makes me think that perhaps some of the material within this flick might take hold and shake out some of the general malaise in the teen set.
You don’t have to settle for mediocrity.
You don’t have to believe that all there is in life is Dude, Where’s My Car?, Newlyweds and The Simple Life.

Yes, there is easy money in stupidity, in simplistic beauty and being a sell-out. But you can go the other way too.

My big problem with Mean Girls, well two main problems actually are as follows. 1) Perhaps it isn’t mean enough. 2) Perhaps, at points, it was being a little too subtle. Not as subtle as being hit by a bus but subtle as in showing a pre-teen girl watching Girls Gone Wild and racy music videos unattended.

But really when it comes down to all the meanderings and pointless jabbering of a web critic, the only thing that should be asked is, is it funny?

Yes. Consistently, surprisingly and cheerfully so. The two best surprises here are not really surprises at all. Lindsay Lohan will be a talent to be reckoned with in the coming years, and Tina Fey will have a long and prosperous life after her stint as headwriter and newsanchor for Saturday Night Live ends. She can write sharp subtle dialogue as well as the basic ‘fugly skank’ put down.

Despite the legions of twelve year olds that flocked to see this, the film plays to a much wider audience than one might expect from its title. With director Mark Waters at the helm he follows a very clear path set out by Heathers which was, coincidentally or not, written by his brother Daniel Waters. It is easy to parallel the flicks…new kid at school changes the cliques, interviews with students to throw out not only punch lines but to get the teen obsessive mind set across quickly and effectively. Who knew Heathers would one day turn out to be a nice formula for the high school genre.

It was also nice to see former SNL alumni being used well, not as joke cameo’s but as characters within the flick. Some get to be funny like Tim Meadows, Amy Poehler and Tina Fey while Ana Gasteyer is more along the lines of necessary adult reality in the form of Cady’s (Lohan’s) mom. The one casting decision I am a little surprised by was Rachel McAdams (Regina George) who seemed a little out of her league amongst more seasoned performers like Lindsay Lohan and Lacy Chabert (Gretchen).

It’s not a rush out and see film, but was worth the screening. I'm hanging around the 3.5 out of 5 area on this one.

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Copyright© Written By: Rob Paul
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