Do Revenge tells the tale of a Queen Bee on the outs in her high school and the deal she makes with a new student to trade revenge. They will dig their way into each other’s friend group and enact social sabotage.

This is a good idea for a teen comedy that’s kind of poorly implemented. It’s a mash-up of Mean Girls and Strangers on a Train and I dig the idea… but I guess there’s a huge difference between trading murders and trading revenge. In this flick, what’s really the difference if they ingratiate themselves into a friends group and then stab them in the back. They are no longer anonymous to the group so there’s “evidence” of the crime just in the friendships.

But maybe I’m putting too much thought into it. Unfortunately, I don’t think even what they did was particularly well implemented… not to mention the movie being unfairly long at an hour and fifty minutes. I was often somewhat bored… the movie felt like it needed to be more gleefully wicked, satirical, catty, campy, or something. It just didn’t have the fangs it called for.

But at least they slip a secondary and surprising second plot into the film eventually. It helps to save the movie a bit… even if it still felt a little overstuffed and sluggish.

But, hey, it does have some heart-warming and sweet moments between the two leads Camila Mendes and Maya Hawke. They have a lot of chemistry and they each create reasonably interesting characters.

I’m pretty mixed on this film but just enough down on it to not recommend it very highly. It has merit and maybe the target audience will enjoy it more (assuming they aren’t too dubious of the suspiciously 90s soundtrack). I really wish I enjoyed it more since the idea is pretty great… I just wish it was more Heathers meets Strangers on a Train and less Mean Girls.

Score: 72