Lesson Plan

A decent low budget martial arts film coming out of Poland. The total is greater than the sum of its parts as the script about undercover teachers trying to break up a drug ring at a school is not that believable. The Characters, too, very cartoonish. The direction and cinematography are very 1980's and low budget. Predictable. However, it works pretty well for what it is. The cast is watchable. The star is believable as a broken undercover cop trying to make good on a failure to his deceased friend. The actress that plays the lead female teacher is very good. The fighting is plentiful and decent. It has heart, for sure.

This movie is the epitome of a cliche factory. School full of supervillains, teaching kids to stand up for themselves, women getting all hot and bothered cuz a guy defended their life, drugs are SUPER evil, fight scenes near electrical wires that will clearly end with the bad guy getting kicked into the wires...just, all of them.

BUT...who really cares? Saw reviewers giving this a 1 and 2, really? This is a clear cut sign someone has never truly seen a 1 or 2 star movie. Me? I managed to sit at least 50-60% through Insane Clown Posse's "Big Money Rustlas" (I don't even like ICP) and I watched all of "Money Plane", which is closer to a 1 or 2 star movie than this could ever hope to be. I'd still give it like, a 3 though.

What you are actually watching is the closest thing I've seen to a live action anime/comic book film set in Poland. I've watched very few Polish films/shows (so none of these actors are recognizable) and I'm awful with faces, but lucky for me, every single bad guy is distinctively designed from the rest of the cast...from primary bad guys to the randoms he fights, like the striped polo gang in the bar. Every issue can be solved with a fist fight, the main character just happens to show up at every location/scene they're needed at that time, and the bad guys only ever bring as much back-up as is completely necessary at the time, super convenient.

If you are looking for a movie that is going to make you think, make you ponder hard truths, and blah blah blah...this is not for you. PLENTY of those out there as every camera comes with a soapbox these days, but this is great for about 90ish (without credits) minutes of entertainment. I'd rate it a generous 7 but the action scenes lack impact...which, you'd think would be the only thing they'd definitely get right, but, alas.

"Lesson Plan" is an Action - Drama movie in which we watch an ex-cop investigating his friend's death while working as a teacher. His main goal is to find out what happened and his friend died but also who is responsible for his death.

I enjoyed this movie because it had a nice, simple plot that contained plenty of action and suspense and at the same time some plot twists that I did not expect. The interpretation of Piotr Witkowski who played as Damian Nowicki was very good and he made the difference. The direction which was made by Daniel Markowicz was simple and he presented his main character very well, something that made possible for the audience to relate to him and follow him on his risky quest. Finally, I have to say that "Lesson Plan" is an interesting action movie to spend your time with.

Not only does the story move at a glacial pace, the action moves just as slow. Every move looks over-choreographed and lands so slowly it looks like it does no damage. Not only that but even when the main character's life is threatened, he rarely does any permanent damage to his opponents. He leaves random drunks with more bruises than those responsible for his friend's death. It completely breaks immersion.

Overall, the story itself isn't a bad one and the film could've been an entertaining if unmemorable action flick if some sort of action coach had been hired and a script editor hired to remove the cheesy, recycled lines from old kung-fu movies. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case and it instead ended up disappointingly average.

No pun intended - not sure if this took one movie in particular and said that is the blueprint we want to use. But the movie itself is quite predictable .. it also seems to have no surprises when it comes to characters ... and developments if you want to call them that. But if you like action movies ... and don't care about story or plot a lot ... well you could do worse.

The movie is also easy and takes the easy (hard hitting, no pun intended) way most of the time. The ending is also quite convenient ... when it comes to positioning ... but if you have an issue with that falling down on you ... well you didn't really like anything that came before it either. It is a B-Movie action film from Poland ... there are far worse things out there ... there are far better things too ... overall it is a decent effort in my eyes.