4K and Blu-ray movie reviews: ‘Mean Girls’ and ‘Fletch’

Here’s a look at a pair of vintage comedies returning to home entertainment screens.

Mean Girls: 20th Anniversary Limited Edition (Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment, rated PG-13, 97 minutes, 1.85:1 aspect ratio, $25.99) Screenwriter Tina Fey’s 2004 blockbusting teen dramedy joins the ultra-high definition club, ready to deliver a bounty of laughs to first time home theater viewers.

The story of miscalculated revenge and forgiveness finds sheltered 16-year-old homeschooler Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) forced to go to high school after her researching parents bring her to America from Africa when her mom accepts a teaching job at Northwestern University.

The expected reluctance and cruelness of students and teachers to accept the “new” girl leads Cady to form a strategic friendship with two artsy outcasts, Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese).

Cady also starts to hang out with the school’s most popular girls — Regina (Rachel McAdams), Gretchen (Lacey Chabert) and Karen (Amanda Seyfried in her feature film debut), nicknamed the Plastics — until Regina betrays her with a boy she likes.

The love treachery leads Cady to work with Janis and Damian to get back at Regina through lame pranks but ultimately leads to chaos at the school with the release of the hateful Burn Book (a scrapbook compiling the Plastics’ vitriol toward other students).

The quirky comedy entertains with a supporting cast that is like a “Saturday Night Live” reunion with appearances by Tim Meadows as the principal, Ana Gasteyer as Cady’s mother, Amy Poehler as Regina’s mother and even Ms. Fey as a math teacher.

The 4K presentation looks colorful and crisp in a screen-filling aspect ratio highlighted by the details of the Plastics outrageously risqué clothing as well as an overall focus on the pink and purple spectrums.

Best extras: Vintage and even new bonus content all on the 4K disc greets viewers looking for an overview on the production and legacy of “Mean Girls.”

Start with an optional commentary track from the 2004 DVD release with Ms. Fey, director Mark Waters and producer Lorne Michaels.

Understated with a simmering undertone of snark, the track features sporadic chunks of information but is anchored by Mr. Michaels usually delivering the laughs as he talks under his breath.

Reveals include changes in dialogue and audition stories with specifics having the director tell Rachel McAdams to watch “Glengarry Glenn Ross” and base her character Regina on sales motivator Blake, Regina’s boyfriend Shane Oman was named after a stage manager at Second City, and messing with the speeds of Cady’s voice-overs to fit more dialogue in the movie.

A brand-new extra is an eight-minute disappointing retrospective that features cast and crew from the 2024 musical remake of the film based on the Broadway musical with a few words from Miss Fey.

Other vintage extras include three featurettes on the making the film (roughly 45 minutes long) and nine deleted scenes with optional commentary by Mr. Waters and Miss Fey.

Fletch: Special Edition (Kino Lorber, rated PG, 98 minutes, 1.85:1 aspect ratio, $24.95) In the prime of his comedic pomposity, Chevy Chase had a hit back in 1985 with an amusing crime thriller that now returns to the Blu-ray disc format with a new extra.

As the adapted story from Andrew Bergman’s popular novel goes, the movie introduces Irwin “Fletch” Fletcher, a wise-cracking investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times and master of disguise.

While posing as a drug addict, Fletch gets asked by a business executive Alan Stanwyk (Tim Matheson) to kill him for $50,000 due to a terminal cancer diagnosis.

However, the facts do not add up and the reporter goes into amateur detective mode to find out the truth. He uncovers police corruption, murder, drug smuggling, fraud and even bigamy.

Actors supporting Mr. Chase’s familiar wiseacre schtick include icons such as Geena Davis as a news researcher, Joe Don Baker as a police chief and George Wendt as a drug supplier.

The screen-filling high definition master arrives via a 2K scan of the 35mm interpositive, and the results do not disappoint.

Best extras: Kino Lorber first offers a brand-new optional commentary track with journalists Bryan Reesman and Max Evry.

They extensively cover the book series and differences between novel and script, production history, locations and meander as they touch on the homeless issue in Los Angeles in the 1980s, the cost of shooting in a mansion, cast choices to play Fletch (including Mick Jagger), Hollywood in the 1980s and Quentin Tarantino thoughts on Bill Murray versus Chevy Chase movies.

The pair are obviously reading off cheat cards often throughout the discourse and using quotes from many third-party sources, but that’s OK because they unload information nonstop during the entire movie.

Next, and culled from the 2007 special DVD release, are a pair of featurettes led by a 27-minute retrospective lacking any words from Mr. Chase but including interviews with Mr. Matheson and numerous other members of the cast, editor Richard Harris, first assistant director Wolfgang Glattes and Mr. Bergman.

The second is five minutes on Fletch’s various disguises as explained by makeup artist Ken Chase, hairstylist Bunny Parker and cast members (devoid of Mr. Chase, once again).