Normally I am not keen on the 'stoner comedies', as I have seen a good share and most of them have been pretty boring, lacking comedy and basically not really been worth watching. But the cast list credited to this movie made me sit down and give it a chance.
And "High School" really surprised me as it turned out to be the best of all the 'stoner comedies' I have ever suffered through.
The story is about Henry (played by Matt Bush) who is a student with great grades and about to makes it to MIT, but in a moment of weakness he tried smoking weed with his childhood friend Travis (played by Sean Marquette). Unfortunately the high school they are attending implements mandatory drug testing for the following day, in lieu of a former spell bee champion from the school making headline news from being high on drugs during the competition. Coming up with a clever plan, the two friends decide to drug the entire school, to make everyone fail the drug tests, and end up stealing drugs from Psycho Ed (played by Adrien Brody). The following day becomes a chaotic race against time, as principal Leslie Gordon (played by Michael Chiklis) is piecing together what is really going on.
I will say that the story was cleverly thought through, and it had some nice moments. Sadly, though, this is not the type of comedy that will have you laughing hard throughout the entire movie. I laughed only a couple of times. But it is the type of comedy that is fun to watch and entertaining.
As for the cast list, the reason why I decided to watch this movie, well I must applaud Adrien Brody for his performance in this movie. He played the role of Psycho Ed so well, and it was a sheer joy to watch him in this movie. But also hats off for Michael Chiklis for his portrayal of the oddly behaving principal. It was very surreal to see these two in a movie like this and have roles like this. But they did a tremendous job, and they really carried the movie.
If you enjoy the 'stoner comedy' genre, then you definitely have to treat yourself to this movie, because it is really great.
And with that, I will leave you with a great quote from principal Leslie Gordon: "If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this footage should be worth a thousand pictures. Which would equal a million... words."
