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Rating: Country: USA Release Date: April 14, 2009 Distributor: Paramount Director: · Mark Waters Cast: · Lindsay Lohan · Rachel McAdams · Lacey Chabert · Amanda Seyfried · Tina Fey · Amy Poehler Related Sites: · IMDb: Mean Girls Grade: A-

With Tina Fey’s career at an all time high, having won numerous awards and kudos for the hilarious 30 Rock, the release of “Mean Girls”—Fey’s earlier feature length effort—on Blu-ray makes a lot of sense. Even the artwork on the release has been modified to reflect Fey’s involvement, showing “Lindsay Lohan and Tina Fey in” above the title. This movie was actually quite the jumping off point for many careers, introducing people like Rachel McAdams, Lizzy Caplan and Amanda Seyfried to the mainstream. And as far as PG-13 movies about teenage girls go, “Mean Girls” proves way ahead of the pack, finding a great deal of humour in stereotypical high school situations and successfully balancing non-sequiturs with a progressive narrative .

When the home-schooled Cady (Lindsay Lohan) moves from Africa to America and enrolls in the public school system, she gets a rude awakening from implicit social hierarchies and teenage female behaviour. Initially befriending social outcasts Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese), Cady’s physical attributes sparks not only the attention of the boys in school, but the elitist girl clique known as “the Plastics”, who immediately ingratiate her into their social dynamic for fear of competition. This clique consists of Queen Bee bitch Regina George (Rachel McAdams), insecure gossip queen extraordinaire Gretchen (Lacey Chabert) and incest-inclined resident bimbo Karen (Amanda Seyfried).

While this cluster of girls initially intrigues Cady, she quickly adapts to their self-serving, backstabbing antics, when they start to exploit and manipulate her.

Worth noting is Amy Poehler’s brief, but hilarious, role as Regina’s trashy mother, sporting big fake boobs and a Chihuahua to boot. Viewers should check out the “Word Vomit” blooper reel, included on the Blu-ray, for outtakes of Poehler photographing and dry humping her daughter, Regina, before the big Halloween party. It’s extremely amusing.

From the burn book, wherein Dawn Schweitzer is referred to as a fat virgin and another young lady is said to have pleasured herself with a frozen hotdog, to Regina’s constant running bitchy commentary about ugly effing skirts and so forth, “Mean Girls” proves consistently amusing and pleasant to watch.

In addition to a heightened 1080p High Definition picture and crisp sound, the Blu-ray release of “Mean Girls” boasts a variety of special features that are far more amusing and entertaining than most supplements. Starting things out, is a commentary track with writer Tina Fey, director Mark Waters and producer Lorne Michaels, which is both informative and amusing, pointing out that the “buttered muffin” joke was originally a “cherry popping” joke, but had to be cut for a PG-13 rating.

In addition, three featurettes are included on the fashion, the novel “Queen Bees & Wannabees”, on which the film is based and a general “behind the scenes”. The behind the scenes supplement discusses how the film came about, and the casting of the lead roles, while the “Politics” featurette discusses teen insecurities and behaviours with insight.

Also included is the aforementioned blooper reel, along with deleted scenes with commentary, which include the manufacturing of Jell-O shots and Gretchen’s attempts to make the word “knobby” happen.

Worth checking out, as well, are the three intersticials used to promote the film, as the final PSA about female body issues is absolutely hilarious.