“Mean Girls”

7.1

A movie… based on a broadway play… based on a movie. What can go wrong? I’m pretty sure this is the definition of “snake eating its own tail.”

If you enjoyed the original and don’t mind some surprisingly well-fitting musical numbers (it is a musical in disguise), you’ll like this one. After HBO’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls” I’ll watch anything with Renee Rap in it. She’s joining Anna Kendrick in that hallowed territory. And she kills it as Regina George. That being said, Angourie Rice, Avantika Vandanapu, and Bebe Wood all fill the big shoes they were left by the original cast. Is it as “lightning in a bottle” as the original? No. But it does a great job of honoring the original while updating a few things along the way enough to make it feel fresh. Maybe in the third installment, “fetch” will finally happen…