Hello! I'm new to Ciao so please be gentle...I'm trying my best to learn how to write informative re...
Hello! I'm new to Ciao so please be gentle...I'm trying my best to learn how to write informative reviews!
My interests include reading, watching foreign movies, cooking & eating, and cycling.
Member since:14.12.2005
Reviews:12
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This film might look like just another teen movie, but don't be fooled. It sets itself apart by its quirky humour, sensitive plot and excellent delivery. The writing really is flawless, and allows Tina Fey to present an important issue - that of peer pressure and rivalry amongst schoolgirls - while producing a film that's entertaining, easy on the eye and appealing to a wider audience than just teenage girls.
Tina Fey, who herself appears in the film as a teacher, got the idea for the film from a book called "Queen Bees & Wannabes" by Rosalind Wiseman, which was written to help parents of teenagers understand what their children were going through. Many an obnoxious film company contacted Wiseman to try to secure rights to her book, but only Fey's intelligent attitude caught her interest.
~THE PLOT~ The star of the show, Cady Heron (pronounced "Kay-dee"), is a white American teenage girl who just happens to have spent most of her life in Africa where her parents worked and kept her home schooled. Faced with the tough world
of American high school, Cady is slightly bewildered but she is confident enough not to become and outcast and too innocent and positive to realise quite how bitchy girls can be. Cady is immediately befriended by a quirky pair, arty Janis and too-gay-to-function Damien, who teach her a little about school politics, above all about "the plastics", the clique-iest of groups, headed by Regina George, the most hated and at the same time worshiped girl in the school. Encouraged by Janis who has a secret vendetta against Regina, Cady uses her looks to secure a place in the group and spy on Regina, ultimately sabottaging her position of power. But the game suddenly turns nasty when Cady is sucked in to the mean girl mindset...
~THE ACTING~ Lindsay Lohan is brilliant as the innocent natural star that is Cady. She is almost too stunning for the role, to graceful and sexy, and along with the character's brains (Cady is a maths geek) she is too good to be true at times - but this is Hollywood so we can't ask for too much realism. Lohan is expressive, fresh and fun to watch. Regina was perhaps slightly weakly portrayed by Rachel M. It turns out that Lohan was originally going for that part, but decided that she didn't want to play the role of a bitch so early in her career. The directors had trouble finding someone to be a strong enough adversary to Lohan, and I suppose they didn't want her to be overshadowed so McAdams does the job - it's just that at times she doesn't seem cool or pretty enough to have won so much admiration. The other important members of the cast are the plastic girls, Gretchen (Lacey Chabert) and Karen (Amanda Seyfried), who are dappy but likeable; Aaron, the hot guy, (Jonathan Bennett) who doesn't have much of a role other than looking dreamy; Janis (Lizzy Chaplan) who is alternative and really a cut above the rest of the girls, and her companion Damian (Daniel Franzese), the only male who gets a look in - this movie is all about the girls after all.
~MUSIC & COSTUME~ There is so much fun to be had where music and costume are concerned in this type of movie. Cady alone has 40 different outfits as she transforms from simple country girl to uberslut and back to understatedly stylish. The music is also fun, lots of recognisable hits such as Milkshake by Kelis to which the girls strut in their shiny clothes and impeccable make-up. The only thing I thought could have had more made of it was the Christmas dance the plastic girls perform - it would have been fun to watch a well correographed dance, especially as creative Janis was supposed to have written it.
~DVD FEATURETTES~ If you see this on DVD, you should really watch the extra features. They feature interviews with the script writer, the actors and the inspiration behind the whole idea. If I hadn't watched them, I wouldn't have known that the film was based on an academic book written by a woman who has worked with thousands of girls and boys. There is more depth to this film than you might think.
~CREDITS~ Lindsay Lohan .... Cady Heron Rachel McAdams .... Regina George Tina Fey .... Ms. Norbury Tim Meadows .... Mr. Duvall Amy Poehler .... Mrs. George Ana Gasteyer .... Cady's Mom Lacey Chabert .... Gretchen Wieners Amanda Seyfried .... Karen Smith Lizzy Caplan .... Janis Ian Daniel Franzese .... Damian Neil Flynn .... Cady's Dad Jonathan Bennett .... Aaron Samuels Rajiv Surendra .... Kevin Gnapoor Elana Shilling .... Spelling Girl Graham Kartna .... Homeschooled Boy
~PURCHASING INFO~ This DVD is currently on sale at HMV for £3.99 - absolute bargain!
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The cutting wit of Tina Fey (the first female head writer for US comedy breeding ... more
groundSaturday Night Live) brilliantly fuses pop culture and smart satire. Fey wroteMean Girls, in which a formerly home-schooled girl named Cady (Lindsay Lohan) gets drop...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The cutting wit of Tina Fey (the first female head writer for US comedy breeding ... more
groundSaturday Night Live) brilliantly fuses pop culture and smart satire. Fey wroteMean Girls, in which a formerly home-schooled girl named Cady (Lindsay Lohan) gets drop...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 11 to 14 days...
Raised in the African bush country by her zoologist parents, Cady (Lindsay Lohan) thinks ... more
she knows all about the survival of the fittest. But the law of the jungle takes on a whole new meaning when the home-schooled 15-year-old enters public high schoo...
Advantages: Extremely funny, very true to life and featuring a great cast Disadvantages: Makes you realise how mean us girls can really be! (not me obv...)
hannahmc3 02.11.2006 (02.11.2006)
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Review of Mean Girls (DVD)
![Mean Girls (Special Collector's Edition) [2004] [DVD]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78508437.jpg "Mean Girls (Special Collector's Edition) [2004] [DVD]")
Jan 8th, 2006
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