Parents' Guide to

Mean Girls 2

By Sandie Angulo Chen, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Mildly amusing sequel follows same "be yourself" storyline.

Movie PG-13 2011 96 minutes
Mean Girls 2 Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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age 12+

Based on 15 parent reviews

Leah S.
Leah S. Adult
May 22, 2020
age 10+

Garbage movie.

Nothing is good about this. It’s a rip off of the first movie. Watch the first one instead, and don’t waste time or money on this.
Hailey Spring
Hailey Spring Parent of 6, 12 and 15-year-old
March 31, 2019
age 11+

Blah

Given how iconic Mean Girls is, there’s no way a straight-to-DVD sequel would be good. The entire time I couldn’t help but feel it was a Disney channel original movie. Why does it have to suck?! They throw in some old childhood TV stars and own actor from the original(the character was TOTALLY ruined). The lead actress has the WORST line delivery EVER!! I just hate this movie. You CANNOT take an iconic YA chick-flick comedy and dumb it down into a children’s movie. At least not with the intent of making people like it. It felt like I was just watching a Wattpad fanfiction.
See all 15 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Jo Mitchell (Meaghan Martin) is perpetually the new girl in school. The daughter of a NASCAR mechanic (Linden Ashby), she's spending her senior year at North Shore High, her sixth school in four years. Usually, Jo keeps to herself, but when she stands up to a trio of girls who rule the school -- queen bee Mandi (Maiara Walsh), vapid sexpot Chastity (Claire Holt), and well-dressed germaphobe Hope (Nicole Gale Anderson) -- she finds herself the target of their mean-girl viciousness. Confusing matters is the class' wealthy wallflower, Abby (Jennifer Stone), whose rich father offers Jo college tuition in exchange for befriending Abby. Jo accepts the deal and winds up becoming best friends with Abby, falling for Mandi's sweet stepbrother Tyler (Diego Gonzalez Boneta) and eventually rivaling the Plastics for social control of the school.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (15):
Kids say (95):

Like most teen-targeted, made-for-TV movies, MEAN GIRLS 2 has decent production values, veteran young actors, and a very predictable plot. Anyone who's seen the original Tina Fey-penned, Lindsay Lohan-starring comedy will know pretty much exactly what's happening from the opening credits. But Jo, unlike Lohan's Cady, doesn't become one of the Plastics; she creates her own Anti-Plastics clique that takes on the alpha girls. But otherwise, the clique's name is the same, the girls fall into the same exact stereotypes (one dim, promiscuou blond a la Amanda Seyfried and one high-strung, brunette fashionista like Lacey Chabert), and the story arc about the protagonist becoming a little too much like the Mean Girls is the same as well. It would have been better if the writers had come up with a more original story that didn't ape the original as much.

The actors are all small-screen alums who know the drill, and Tim Meadows reprises his role as a principal who kinda hates the students but can't really do anything to stop their appalling behavior. Parts of the movie are a bit ridiculous (what upper-middle-class school allows toy dogs or blatant bullying?), but it's the conversations this movie can inspire that make it worth checking out. Every school has its Mean Girls (and Mean Guys), and it's worthwhile to see this with your teens and tweens and then gauge how they handle clique worship and exclusivity. And if you haven't seen the original, definitely give it a go; it looks like a master class compared to this TV-fied version.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the "mean girls" phenomenon. How do your kids deal with them at their school?

  • In this movie, why do girls get called a "bitch" nastily if they have boyfriends or a "virgin" nastily if they haven't gone all the way? Is it OK to make fun of people for their sexual experience or lack thereof? Teens: What kinds of expectations are there around sexuality in your school?

  • The Plastics are materialistic and brand-obsessed. How do high-schoolers handle consumerism when it comes to cars and clothes -- especially if they can't afford to buy what's designer and trendy?

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