Commentary by director Mark Waters, screenwriter & actress Tina Fey, and producer Lorne Michaels, Three Featurettes, Blooper reel, Nine Additional Scenes, Theatrical trailer

Mean Girls is directed by Mark Waters, and stars Rachel McAdams, Lindsay Lohan, Amy Poehler, and Tim Meadows. The film is based on the Rosalind Wiseman book. ***

Mean Girls is the story of the 15-year-old girl who is attending a public high school for the first time – all her life, she’d been homeschooled by her parents, who were performing work in the jungles of Africa. In public high school, she faces a different kind of jungle, with assorted students, cliques, and friends. She plots to bring down the “Plastics”, the lead clique in school that is laden with snotty girls. But will she bring them down, or end up adopting their lifestyle? ***

As a twenty-something male, I’m clearly not the target audience for this movie. I’m not going to deny that for a second. This movie was clearly designed with pre-early teen girls in mind, and on that level it succeeds beautifully. But the real surprise is how much I ended up enjoying the film. ***

Lindsay Lohan gives a great performance here as Cady, the formerly-homeschooled girl who finds herself in a public school for the first time. In these last few years, Lohan’s controversial lifestyle choices have overshadowed here acting and music careers, and that’s a real shame, because she can be a great actress when she wants to be, and when the source material is right. She nails this role, and gives a performance that really deserved more credit. It’s not hard to care for and sympathize with her character here. As far as the actress portion of her career goes, this is Ms. Lohan’s finest hour. If you dare say she has no talent, you haven’t seen Mean Girls.

***

The other thing about the film that is praiseworthy is its writing. Like I said, I’m not the target audience here, but I was shocked at how close to home this movie hit. If you’ve ever attended public school, particularly in recent years, you’ll be visiting familiar territory as you watch Mean Girls. Cliques, students, school personnel, drama – it’s all here. With sharp writing and some great performances, this is an excellent film. Don’t write this off as another chick flick or teen drama fest. It’s so much more than that. ---

Image and Sound:

Mean Girls gets a substantial visual upgrade from the old standard definition release, although it’s not quite what this reviewer would call demo material. Throughout the film, the image is bright and clear, and the amount of fine object detail visible throughout the movie is a massive improvement. I was able to pick out details in various parts of the film, and read text I wasn’t able to on the original DVD. Audio also gets an upgrade to TrueHD, but since this is a film in which most of the sound is dialogue, it’s not a massive improvement. That’s not to say this is a bad audio track, in fact, it’s excellent. This was just never the kind of movie that was meant to rock your speakers. All in all, Mean Girls looks pretty damn good in 1080p, and sounds great too. It’s probably the best the film will ever look or sound, and that’s all right with me.

All bonus features included on this disc were ported over from the original DVD release and are presented in 480p (with the exception of the trailer, which is now presented in 1080p.) A number of individuals on the cast and crew participate on the commentary track, but it’s a pretty bland affair, with not much going on but the discussion of the filmmaking techniques, cast and crew, the source novel, etc. A pretty basic commentary. Nine additional scenes are included, most of which are deleted scenes that were cut from the film, though a few are alternate/extended versions. While these are fun to watch if you were a fan of the film, they were rightfully excised from the final version of the movie. An outtake reel is included as well, which seems to be a standard bonus feature on home video releases these days. With these actors and actresses, though, I found this gag reel=2 0more amusing than most. Rounding out the collection of bonuses on this disc is a set of featurettes, dealing with a variety of subjects, including the making of the film, interviews with cast and crew, and real-life struggles that high school girls face. All in all, this is an excellent collection of supplements, and I doubt any fan of the film is going to be disappointed.

Final Words: