Mean Girls

Two and one half stars
Lindsay Lohan, Tina Fey

This film could have been much more if Lorne Michales had kept his nose out of it. Michales, producer of 'Kids In The Hall' 'Saturday Night Live' and each and every movie spin off of charecters and sketches made popular by the late night sketch comedy showcase, has a singular and almost juvenile sense of humor that has kept me in stiches through many movies and hours of late night comedy. However, Mean Girls had a heart and mind that no willy nilly Waynes World or Super Star ever had. I'm told there's a lot of truth behind the humor in Mean Girls and that expose of social structure is as intriguing as is joy that comes from laughing at that expose.

Tina Fey steps up big time in this, her first film after leaving SNL. She anchors the show without playing a major roll and steals most every scene she is in. It was sucide to let the directors draw her into cheesball antics which were not funny, detracted from the story and poisoned the integrity of her charecter. Interestingly enough, Fey takes the sole screenplay credit for the film.

I could not have been more greatful that Tim Meadows played a minor roll. Tim Meadows is a talent less hack who by luck stepped into the parabolic chamber that is SNL. In this film he is extremly aggrivating and poorly cast as the principal of the school. He is still the same charecter as in every other film he's garnered and offers only lude comments with a passionless performance. Again, I wish Lorne had kept his influene out of this movie with regard to Meadows. Too many SNL alumni are in this film altogether for that matter as so few of them have the talent to rise above high school comedy routines.

All in all, this film has a lot of heart, a story line that's fun to follow and some great humor, just pretend "Tommy Boy" antics were pasted in by some vandal.