Rotten Tomatoes Logo Do you want to see ‘Mean Girls’?
Mean Girls

Mean Girls (2004)

tomatometer

83

Average Rating: 6.9/10
Reviews Counted: 175
Fresh: 146 | Rotten: 29

Funnier and more smartly written than the average teen comedy.

78

Average Rating: 6.6/10
Critic Reviews: 40
Fresh: 31 | Rotten: 9

Funnier and more smartly written than the average teen comedy.

audience

66

liked it
Average Rating: 3/5
User Ratings: 30,683,736

My Rating

Movie Info

Tina Fey from Saturday Night Live wrote and appears in this comedy about the alternately funny and terrifying pecking order among teenage girls. Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) is a 15-year-old girl who has spent most of her life in Africa, where she was home-schooled by her zoologist parents. When her family relocates to the United States, Cady finds herself attending a high school in suburban Illinois, where she gets a crash course in the various sub-strata of the student body: the jocks, the

PG-13, 1 hr. 37 min.

Comedy

Tina Fey

Sep 21, 2004

$86.0M

Paramount Pictures

Cast

All Critics (175) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (151) | Rotten (30) | DVD (29)

Lacks the genuine bile that made Heathers so bracing.

July 19, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A smart little teen picture that, for a change, actually features recognizable teens.

August 7, 2004 Full Review Source: New York Magazine | Comment
New York Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

I would be more amused if the topic of rich material girls had not been worn to a thread elsewhere.

August 1, 2004 Comment
New Yorker
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A teen movie I enjoyed enormously, much to my surprise.

May 20, 2004 Full Review Source: New York Observer | Comment
New York Observer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Mean Girls isn't a particularly deep picture, but it does have some weight and ballast.

May 1, 2004 Full Review Source: Salon.com | Comment
Salon.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Mean Girls has a sharp, grown-up sensibility that belies its marketing as airhead comedy.

April 30, 2004 Comment
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The best of the recent clutch of teen movies, Mean Girls also represents a return to form for the filmmaking wing of Saturday Night Live.

October 24, 2011 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

Mature but often-hilarious teen comedy.

December 26, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

Lindsay Lohan is more likely to die before 30 than to land another lead role as suited to her (likely squandered) talent. Tina Fey's script is an observant equal-opportunity offender about how high school remains a jungle of hormones and haughtiness.

September 19, 2010 Full Review Source: Suite101.com | Comment
Suite101.com

Like Heathers with the edges filed down a bit...the kind of smooth, clever (and rare) entertainment that critics and audiences can all enjoy, guilt-free. [Blu-ray]

June 19, 2009 Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | Comment

Mean Girls is an very intelligent, often funny, well written and clever satire on high school and its status quo.

April 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed | Comment
Cinema Crazed

The film boasts a solidly female cast, and its' a well cast film at that.

April 18, 2009 Full Review Source: 7M Pictures | Comment
7M Pictures

Where the movie is merely cute, it could have been tough. Where it's pleasantly amusing, it could have been outrageously hilarious. (Blu-ray Edition)

April 9, 2009 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

Like the wannabes at North Shore, Mean Girls longs to take a step beyond the ordinary, but it takes the easier, more traditional route instead.

April 9, 2009 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

Though better written, better acted and with more wit and subtlety than your average teen flick, the atmosphere in Mean Girls with its promiscuous sex and well, meanness, make it almost as nasty to sit through as these girls are to each other.

October 29, 2008 Full Review Source: Decent Films Guide | Comment (1)
Decent Films Guide

A lively and upbeat teen comedy that grapples with social dynamics, Mean Girls is fresh, spicy and laden with plenty of tang.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

It's not a classic, but it's an above-average and refreshingly smart teen comedy.

December 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound | Comments (2)
Big Picture Big Sound

It announces the arrival of Tina Fey into the ranks of smart screenwriters.

September 27, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
eFilmCritic.com

Props to Tina Fey for being the first cast member since Mike Myers in Wayne's World to survive her movie being produced by Saturday Night Live boss Lorne Michaels -- and not also have her movie completely suck.

September 29, 2006 Full Review Source: Lawrence.com | Comment

Mean Girls lacks sincerity, and instead acts like any teenage queen bee -- being cruel and picking on the weak -- only to then break its own rules and be hypocritical.

September 27, 2006 Comments (2)

Happily, Fey and Waters gently tweak the studios' usual high-gloss caricature of adolescence and aim for acutely hilarious and surprisingly empathic sociology.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

The stinging wit of first-time screenwriter Tina Fey gives Mean Girls a zest and zing few high school comedies ever muster.

May 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment
Combustible Celluloid

It is precisely intelligence, and Fey's refusal to talk down to her audience, that elevates Mean Girls above most other teen movies out there.

December 6, 2005 Full Review Source: Film Threat | Comment
Film Threat
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Mean Girls

plain

December 26, 2006
superclerk25

Super Reviewer

It's better than your average teen comedy. Lindsay Lohan works well in the leading role. The film does drag on a bit in the last 40 minutes but all round a surprisingly well worked Teen Comedy from Tina Fay.

January 29, 2012
Joseph Mcnicholas

Super Reviewer

    1. Gretchen Weiners: I'm sorry that people are so jealous of me... but I can't help it that I'm so popular.
    – Submitted by Jemmy G (1 day ago)
    1. Regina George: Get in loser, we're going shopping.
    – Submitted by Jemmy G (1 day ago)
    1. Janis Ian: That there is Karen Smith. She is one of the dumbest girls you will ever meet. Damian sat next to her in English last year.
    2. Damian: She asked me how to spell 'orange'.
    3. Cady Heron: *Smirks*.
    4. Janis Ian: That little one, that's Gretchen Weiners.
    5. Damian: She's totally rich because her dad invented Toaster Strudel.
    6. Janis Ian: Gretchen is in everybody's business. She knows everything about everyone.
    7. Damian: That's why her hair is so big. It's full of secrets.
    8. Janis Ian: And evil takes a human form in Regina George. Don't get me wrong, she may seem like your typical selfish,back-stabbing slut faced ho-bag but in reality, she's so much more than that.
    9. Damian: She's the Queen Bee, the Star. Those other two are just her little workers.
    – Submitted by Jemmy G (1 day ago)
    1. Karen Smith: [on the phone with Regina] I can't go out tonight *fake coughs*. I'm sick.
    2. Regina George: Boo you whore! *hangs up*.
    – Submitted by Jemmy G (1 day ago)
    1. Gretchen Weiners: What are you?
    2. Karen Smith: I'm a mouse DuH!..
    – Submitted by Rawballs B (12 days ago)

Latest News for Mean Girls

March 6, 2012:
Mean Moms Follows in Mean Girls' Footsteps
This time, a small-town mom moves to the suburbs and "is faced with confronting the cutthroat world...

February 8, 2012:
Tina Fey Eyes Fancy Nancy Movie
She'd co-produce an adaptation of the popular children's book series.

What's Hot On RT

RT on DVD & Blu-Ray
RT on DVD & Blu-Ray

Red Tails, This Means War

24 Frames
24 Frames

Pictures: Wes Anderson films

Amazing Spider-Man
Amazing Spider-Man

Video: Your friendly four minute preview

Anchorman 2
Anchorman 2

Trailer: The legend continues!

Top Movie Quizzes

LEGO Mania: 2011 Best Picture Nominees
by natalie - 21,971 taken
created 16 months ago
How Much Do You Know About Leonardo DiCaprio?
by natalie - 53,267 taken
created 19 months ago
Pixar Movies!
by jdikwlzviv - 32,372 taken
created 19 months ago
The Wizards of Harry Potter
by jdikwlzviv - 32,960 taken
created 18 months ago
Help | About | Jobs | Newsletter | Critics Submission | API | Licensing | Mobile