Behaving Badly: Brav sein war gestern

Okay, okay this is obviously not a 10/10 movie. But I felt compelled to give it a high rating due to the ridiculous hate it seems to be getting.

It's not supposed to be a masterpiece. It's an attempt at irreverent comedy delivered in deadpan style. As such, it succeeds. It's not for everyone and I'm sure plenty of people will find something to be offended over, but that doesn't make it a bad movie. I found it quite funny, and there isn't a bad performance to be seen. Elizabeth Shue is especially good.

There are so many genuinely bad movies accepted as decent out there. It surprises me to see this one being so targeted.

This movie wants to be "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", "Risky Business" and "American Pie" but it misses the mark severely and just doesn't have what made those other films good or even great. It's shock-value for the sake of shock-value and gross for the sake of being gross. There is no real heart or soul in this film. The characters are stereotypical for the sake of being stereotypical with no real cleverness or subversion happening. This film could have also really benefitted greatly from a script doctor, because so much of this comes off as low-budget fodder that a production company shoots out to fill their yearly quota. I do not blame the author of the novel this is based off of for disavowing this film.

Also I'm so sick of this "blaming a teenager for a grown adult perusing them sexually" trope. It is udder nonsense. It sends a horrid message that absolves any responsibility from the adults at hand who should know better than to actively seek out to be with a minor.

Overall, "Behaving Badly" had potential, but the creators behind the scenes clearly didn't care about fulfilling any of it.

Stupidest movie i ever seen, but , oh what a .... Perfect for rainy afternoon

Life for high schooler Rick Stevens (Nat Wolff) is going all wrong. His mom tries to commit suicide and "While I'm Dead Feed the Dog" is painted on the garage door. It starts with his crush on school hottie Nina Pennington (Selena Gomez). He loses his virginity to his best friend's mom (Elisabeth Shue). His own mom (Mary-Louise Parker) appears as Saint Lola, the saint of teenage sex. He gets pushed into a bet with the mobster's son about having sex with Nina before Arbor Day. She has just broken up with her boyfriend. She likes Josh Groban and he tries to buy backstage passes from sleazy Jimmy Leach (Dylan McDermott).

This is trying to be a teen sex romp with broad satirical humor. It fails in many different ways. The first is that it fails to make Rick a likeable character. The movie needs to dump on him again and again so that he becomes sympathetic. For all the bad things that is supposed to be happening to him, the first big thing in the timeline is him having sex with his best friend's hot mom. He gets the date with the dream girl too early and too easily. He is too dislikable. Selena Gomez is completely bland as the goody girl. The movie is trying to be crude but it's trying too hard. Everything is ugly. The humor is way off. I don't know that much about director Tim Garrick and his writing partner Scott Russell. They don't have much of a track record but I did see their earlier writing effort, Jailbait. It has the same teen sex romp writing with broad satirical takes. The actors are lower grade, the production is lower, and the level of humor is similar. At least, that one's satire marginally works. None of this one works and it's a grind from the very start. I grew to hate the repeat-o-punchlines. This is wasting the talents of some pretty good actors in the adult roles. It's bad.

The first time I watched it I thought it was totally enjoyable. The second time I watched I thought it's also really quite forgettable and a bit monotonous. So maybe it's only good for one watch. It can often depend on how you're feeling too, as to how you receive a film on any particular time. I think it's a contrived comedy film. The lead character has a lot of snide comments about things. It reminds me of Ferris Bueller in some ways. The Poster has Selena Gomez on it but she's a very incidental character to the plot. It shows the target audience. I however like and know the two female leads, mainly Elizabeth Shue whom I remember from the 80s and the chick from Weeds. What's his name from Earl is wasted. In fact that's the thing about this film, it's all over the shop in terms of a coherent story line. That is fatiguing to watch.