new term at high school is even more of a trauma for Cady (Lindsay Lohan) than it is for everybody else, since she is not just an out-of-towner but an out-of-Africa, her parents having raised her as a bush baby. Now she is confronted with the complexity of school loyalties and fads, which-as we are reminded by innumerable slo-mo sequences with an added roartrack-are twice as bloodlusty as the lives of African fauna. Her first friends are Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese), who dare her to hang out with the second wave-a trio of acid beauties, led by the queenly Regina (Rachel McAdams). The twist is that Cady, in pretending to fall for their spoilt ways, really does fall for them, and the problem is that we ourselves never fall for this notion of Cady as weak-willed. Though the movie sags in the second half, your spirits are kept up by the steady flow of slashing lines-courtesy of Tina Fey, who not only wrote the script but also stars as Cady's teacher. If anything, the grownups-especially the school principal, played by Tim Meadows, of whom the picture needs much more-tend to nudge these pushy teen-agers into the wings. The movie, produced by Lorne Michaels and directed by Mark Waters, is often funny, but it was conceived by people who are plainly wiser and more worldly than their target audience, and there's something about that discrepancy that, you know, totally sucks. -Anthony Lane

If you were a kid in the early 1960s, then you saw The Parent Trap with Hayley Mills--it's as simple as that. Now Disney has pulled the beloved comedy--about a pair of twins who meet for the first time at summer camp and vow to reunite their long-divorced parents--out of the mothballs and remade it with a decidedly '90s feel. This time, the twins act is performed by newcomer Lindsay Lohan, who plays both Hallie and Annie, who each live with one of their parents (Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson). Adversaries when they first meet at camp, Hallie and Annie become, well, sisters when they figure out that they are siblings. The comedy springs from their efforts to sabotage Dad's impending marriage to the gold-digging Elaine Hendrix, while reintroducing Dad to Mom. Quaid has a nice, loosey-goosey way with slapstick, as does Richardson, who plays a very funny drunk scene. --Marshall Fine

Ashley (Lindsay Lohan) is lucky: She always gets a taxi, she always says the right thing when the right person needs to hear it, gorgeous dresses get mis-delivered to her apartment. But when she kisses a cute guy at a masquerade ball, her luck vanishes--because the guy is a total loser named Jake (Chris Pine, The Princess Diaries 2) whose collapsing life desperately needs a little luck. Suddenly everything goes right for Jake, while Ashley--who now can't take a step without breaking a heel--has to go on a mad search for the unknown guy she kissed so she can retrieve her stolen luck. Just My Luck isn't as creative with this whimsical premise as it could be, but there are amusing moments as the movie wends its way to the inevitable happy conclusion. As a Lindsay Lohan vehicle, this isn't as smart and funny as Mean Girls or as all-around likable as Freaky Friday, but it's superior to Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen or Herbie: Fully Loaded. Lohan's fans are likely to enjoy the light pop of the British band McFly, who play themselves and have a scruffy charm. --Bret Fetzer

In the wonderfully entertaining Freaky Friday, teenager Anna (Lindsay Lohan) and her forty-something psychiatrist mom Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis) have sunk into a rut of frustrated bickering--until a magic spell causes them to switch bodies. Suddenly Tess finds herself faced with petty teachers, vicious rivals, and a hunky boy, while Anna has to cope with her mother's neurotic patients as well as her befuddled fiance (Mark Harmon), who doesn't understand why his bride-to-be is suddenly recoiling from his embrace on the eve of their wedding. Both Lohan and Curtis turn in deft, delightful performances, with Curtis showing a surprising flair for physical comedy. The movie even manages to explore serious issues about fractured families, new parents, and adolescent sexuality with honesty and empathy--and without making the story stop dead in its tracks. It's a mother-daughter film that fathers and sons can enjoy just as much. --Bret Fetzer

Labor Pains stars Lindsay Lohan as much-abused secretary Thea Dixon, whose boss makes her clean his dog when it rolls in poop. On the brink of being fired, Thea makes a desperate claim: She’s pregnant! Fear of a lawsuit prevails and she keeps her job... but now she’s got to keep up her story. It’s a chore at first, but Thea soon discovers that pregnancy has its privileges; she ends up with a promotion and a fledgling romance--all threatened by the possible revelation of her deceit. Labor Pains has the kind of preposterous but plot-driving premise that might have made for a great screwball comedy in the 1940s. Unfortunately, the clumsy script fumbles every promising scene with obvious jokes and no sense of how to maintain the tricky balance of absurdity and genuine feeling that the story requires. The movie gets a boost from its bouncy soundtrack, Lohan’s likability (only a few years ago she was riding high from Freaky Friday and Mean Girls), and an enjoyable supporting turn from Cheryl Hines (Curb Your Enthusiasm) as Thea’s caustic co-conspirator in the secretarial pool. Janeane Garofalo has a cameo as a talk-show host. --Bret Fetzer

Tucked into the middle of Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen is a charming sequence in which two girls from New Jersey (Linsay Lohan and Alison Pill) try to go to a rock concert in New York and have their illusions broken, then restored, and then broken, just a bit, again. Lola (Lohan) yearns for glory by playing the lead in the high school play and getting to meet the lead singer of a band called Sidarthur. Despite the spiteful efforts of a popular girl, Lola gets everything she wants without much of a struggle. Most of the movie takes place in a glitzy but flavorless high-school world with glossy teenagers dressed like a less discriminating Christina Aguilera. Pill (Pieces of April) shines in the thankless role of the geeky best friend. Also featuring Glenne Headley (Dick Tracy) and Carol Kane (Office Killer). --Bret Fetzer

Lindsay Lohan made a bid for stardom in a grown-up role with this overripe thriller, in which a serial killer's attack causes her personality to shift from model student to sultry stripper. The burlesque queen (named Dakota) may or may not be the subject of a writing exercise by student Aubrey, but once the latter is abducted and mutilated by a vicious killer, the former takes over, much to the consternation of Aubrey's parents (Julia Ormond and Neal McDonough). Director Chris Sivertson (who proved his knack for suspenseful material with The Lost) works hard to gild the nonsensical script with as much visual panache as possible (and he's mostly successful), but there's no getting past the dreary violence or Lohan's performance, which flounders in its attempt to deliver raw sexuality. Lohan's off-screen difficulties helped sink the picture during its brief theatrical run; undoubtedly, her stage routines (which are featured in an extended version on the disc's extras) will be the DVD's chief point of interest, as the movie itself is too flimsy to draw much attention on its own. The supplemental features also include an alternate opening and conclusion (which add nothing to the final product) and a blooper reel. -- Paul Gaita

Teen sensation Lindsay Lohan stars as Lexy Gold, budding journalist and fashion queen of Millington Preparatory School in Manhattan. Together with her best pal Jennifer (Brenda Song), Lexy's always on the lookout for the latest scoop and the latest style. When one of her teachers mysteriously disappears, Lexy goes from school advice columnist to determined investigative reporter. And with a little help from her friends Jennifer and Gabe, and her street-smart editor Jack, Lexy vows to get to the bottom of the mystery. Before they know it, they find themselves hot on the trail of a story bigger than they could have ever imagined!

When three generations of women collide, it isn't always pretty. In Georgia Rule, Lindsay Lohan (Mean Girls) stars as Rachel, a wild child whose mother Lilly (Felicity Huffman, Desperate Housewives) ships her off to Idaho to be tamed by Georgia (Jane Fonda, On Golden Pond)--Lilly's own cantankerous mom. There, 17-year-old Rachel shocks the conservative community with her short shorts, eager sexuality (which she plies on everyone from 12-year-old boys to unsophisticated, but hot, Mormon neighbors), and her tales of possible sexual abuse at the hands of her somewhat slimy stepfather (Cary Elwes, The Princess Bride). As directed by Garry Marshall (Beaches, Pretty Woman), Georgia Rule is a flawed chick flick where the women are tolerable but not particularly likeable. The characters we want to know more about are the peripheral ones we don't see enough of--the men. Simon (Dermot Mulroney), the kindly (and sexy) veterinarian who was once madly in love with Lilly, in many ways is the film's moral compass. A widower whose wife and son died tragically in an accident, Simon would've made a more compelling movie subject than these women. And for all his latent pining for Lilly, the moviegoer feels relieved for him that dodged a bullet by not marrying into this dysfunctional family. While the female leads aren't quite believable as mother, daughter, and grandmother, they all have strong moments in the film that save it from being a groaning mess. While Lohan doesn't exhibit the charm she displayed in Mean Girls, she more than holds her own in parts with the scene-stealing Fonda, who is quite good at chewing up the scenery. --Jae-Ha Kim

The simple pleasure of watching a living car squirt oil in a villain's face just never goes away. Disney, in their effort to revitalize the Herbie franchise, has made the wise choice of not trying too hard--aside from a small bit of skateboarding action, just about every element of Herbie: Fully Loaded would fit right into the 1963 original (groovily titled The Love Bug) or its various sequels. Maggie Peyton (Lindsay Lohan, the fiery-tressed starlet of Mean Girls and Freaky Friday) wants to join her family's dynasty of race car drivers, but her father (Michael Keaton, Batman Returns) worries that she'll get hurt. Instead, as a college graduation gift, he buys her a junked-out Volkswagen Beetle--which turns out to be Herbie, a car with a mind of its own. Soon Maggie and Herbie are racing against an arrogant racing champion (Matt Dillon, Crash, There's Something About Mary) and duking it out with monster trucks, eventually hoping her father's heart will change. Herbie: Fully Loaded is formulaic fluff, but executed with cheerful enthusiasm; everyone involved has clearly embraced the mix of slapstick hijinks and light family drama. There's even a handful of cameos by NASCAR drivers. The result is every bit as ridiculous yet entertaining as its forebears. --Bret Fetzer

Unhappy and lonely after her mother's death, Casey (Lindsay Lohan) attempts to resurrect her mother, but a minor mishap changes the results of her spell and brings an unwanted doll named Eve (Tyra Banks) to life instead. Eve is elated when she first encounters the smells and flavors of real life, but is shocked to realize that she's not the perfect role model she's always considered herself to be. Casey initially despises Eve--she never wanted this doll in the first place and now she's ruined her chances of bringing her mother back to life. But as Eve grows, she brings out the best in Casey, encouraging her to renew old friendships and spurring personal growth and healing. Even Casey's father (Jere Burns) rises above his grief and builds a better relationship with his daughter as a result of his interaction with Eve. This is an entertaining, 89-minute video that juxtaposes the stresses and disappointments of the real world, with their accompanying potential for personal growth, against what initially appears to be a stereotypically idyllic world. What makes the movie powerful is its suggestion that that ideal world is inherently flawed. Performances by Lindsay Lohan (The Parent Trap), supermodel Tyra Banks (Higher Learning), and Jere Burns (television's Something So Right) are very good. The story, while based on a fairly unreal premise, successfully explores some very real issues facing kids today. --Tami Horiuchi