User reviews

"School for Scoundrels" tells the well worn story of a pushover who learns to become more assertive so that he can take charge of his life and finally get the girl. I didn't realize that the film was a remake but the fact that I found it hackneyed to begin with gives an idea of the level of originality we're dealing with here.

The cast contains a number of talented and funny individuals but they are unfortunately let down by the material. Looking at the cast list it's difficult to believe that the film is as mediocre as it is. The script just doesn't deliver the goods comedically and the story's too unoriginal to grab your attention. The technical aspect is no better than average either but I must admit that the soundtrack was pretty nifty.

In the end, I can only recommend this flick if you're absolutely starved for some comedy. There's little to be had here though those who don't mind clichéd stories may appreciate it more than I have.

Roger (Jon Heder) is a wimpy parking meter attendant for NYC. After losing his uniform to thieves on the job and being dumped from the big brother program, he is despondent. Add to this his unrequited crush on a beautiful neighbor named Amanda (Jacinda Barrett), and you have a man on the proverbial ropes. However, a well-meaning friend gives him information about a secret class in male self-esteem, run by the harsh Dr. P (Billy Bob Thornton). In class and on outings, Dr. P uses tough tactics to turn his unfortunate students into successful men. But, what happens when Dr. P decides to put the moves on Amanda, after a chance meeting? Does Roger have what it takes to thwart Dr P's efforts and win Amanda for himself? This is a fairly nice but easily disposable film. Thornton is, of course, a natural choice for the scoundrel teacher and he delivers a good-and-slimy performance. Barrett is beautiful and touching as the love interest, adding greatly to the film's enjoyment. Heder, although a good comic performer, seems all wrong as a romantic lead. But, perhaps it is a bit refreshing for someone without the knockout good looks to go for broke in the love department. Ben Stiller has a fine cameo as a wacko ex-student of Dr. P. The setting in NYC and the costumes are nice. All in all, the film is a satisfying view for a rainy day. But, it doesn't seem like a movie that will be remembered or talked about five years down the road.

I saw a preview yesterday, and the movie is very funny in parts. I laughed so hard I cried a couple of times. On the other hand, there are times when the movie seems to drag on too long. In my opinion, this movie is two stories in one - and one works great, and the other not so much. The whole school for scoundrels thing is hysterical. Any scene with Heder and his buddies had the audience roaring. Jon Glaser was my favorite - will somebody get this guy his own movie, please?! But everything outside that was definitely not on the same level. Even the brilliant Ben Stiller, Sara Silverman and David Cross didn't work nearly as well, nor did the scenes of competition between Heder and Thornton. It's still worth seeing for the scenes that do work with his buddies though, as you don't get to laugh that hard too often. - Mikeontheriver

This remake of the 1960 version with Terry Thomas and Ian Carmichael lacks the originality and real comedy that version provides. I highly recommend sticking to the 1960 movie.

I was a bit let down by this movie. Hearing that Billy bob thorton and Jon Heder were in it, (aswell as sarah silverman) I was expecting to get some quality laughs out of this, but what I got was pretty weak. Not that movies like this have incredible stories or plots, but this one was pretty bad, and it moved at an awkward pace to me, that made it even more unbelievable than the genre usually is, As a fan of this sort of platform for a comedy, maybe I'm being to hard on it by other peoples standards, so I don't want to all out not recommend it, but Don't expect as many laughs as the other Billy bob thorton flicks like bad santa, it's light comedy. I usually tend to enjoy these comedies a few times over, but one viewing of this will be enough for me.

5/10

I've seen countless teeny bopper comedies the past couple of years, and I can honestly say, this wasn't one of them.

This was a good, straight forward comedy, with some hilarious moments and a lovable character. The story was also interesting, even though it was very predictable from the beginning (I don't know many people who watch comedies for a complex, deep, mysterious story line anyways)

My favorite thing about the movie is all the actors fit in perfectly with the characters they are playing. Especially the main character, who develops through the movie from a weak, shy, kind hearted guy, to somebody who is still kind at heart, but not afraid to defend himself and fight for what he wants.

This isn't the best comedy ever, but its good. And I would recommend it to anybody looking for a good laugh out loud movie with lovable characters.

Went to preview screening last night and was pleasantly amused for the first hour but then it just went downhill. Jon Heder's performance is pretty much flat, not bad in any way except that it does nothing to beyond what was on the page. This is typical of most of the cast who seem to be engaged in some sort of paint by numbers exercise. Even Billy Bob Thorton who is well cast as a drill instructor for losers loses steam. Todd Luiso, best known for the wimpy employee in High Fidelity is probably the only actor that manages to turn in something worthy of appreciation. There is an oneupmanship sequence reminiscent of "Rushmore" but only serves to make one wish they were watching that instead. Wait till it's in the video store and you have trouble agreeing what to rent and need something bland.

Take a much superior English film from the 1950's Bo****** it up repackage it for the gullible American market, add bum and poo jokes with sub Benny Hill testicle crushing and there you have it you don't have to pay script writers just import the usual faces (or should that be Faeces) and hey whaddya know a film for the undemanding. There is no gentle demanding humour here no stars of the calibre of Simms or Terry Thomas. Please seek out the original do not pay to see this it only encourages them. At the end of the film it was like someone had crapped on the grave of an elderly beloved relative and walked away giggling. Please stop destroying our heritage find some of your own films to mess up. How about Gone With the Wind with Ben Stiller, Whoopie Goldberg and Angelina Jolie? You could replace the burning of Atlanta with a lot of bum jokes, hell, I'm patenting this idea. Anybody fancy giving me some financial backing?

School for scoundrels.

I must admit, the title was a bit confusing; Surely school for losers would be more apt, if a little harsh. John Heder is actually quite a good lead actor, not quite as dopey as his character is in napoleon dynamite. Billy Bob Thornton plays nearly exactly the same character as he played with less success in Mr Woodcock. And the only character who really grated was the ultra rude flatmate of the love interest (Sarah Silverman) who annoyed me so much as no-one is actually going to be that rude surely!

The last half an hour was a hit and miss affair, some really well done other parts beyond cheesy, but not a bad way to spend a couple of hours.

School for Scoundrels seems undecided whether it wants to be a (yawn) conventional romantic comedy, or a quirky offbeat indie picture more typical of its stars Jon Heyder and Billy Bob Thornton. The presence of Sarah Silverman in the cast made me expect more of the latter, but alas, she is as underused in this plot as she was in School of Rock - a few biting moments, but not enough screen time. Jacinda Barrett is ornamental as the obvious love interest, but sleep walks through the part. There is no explanation of her motivations for behaviour that leaps over hugely improbable plot gaps (none atypical of the rom com genre. Billy Bob is consistently restrained but over the top at once - more Bad Santa than Astronaut Farmer. Heyder seems misused, misdirected or miscast. Having outgrown the high school roles, he seems uncertain whether he is Tom Hanks boyish leading man, or Mathew Broderick's adolescent twit in an adult body.

There are enough plot twists to keep the movie vaguely amusing, but it never grows wings and soars above the ordinary.

Adequately entertaining. Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Heder make mildly interesting, obviously unmatched adversaries. Talented supporting cast also supplies some interest, but no character is fully developed. Michael Clarke Duncan comes the closest, but his hostility, his back story, his orientation is unexplained and sometimes inexplicable. Jacinda Barrett plays a nice girl, and does a nice job. Some laughs, interrupted by huge plot holes. What is Sarah Silverman doing, except being nasty?

The premise is funny. Who hasn't felt like "the nice guy who finishes last", with the exception of people like the self-proclaimed "Doctor P", Billy Bob Thornton, who teaches the class of the weak and the meek to become lions. The overall mediocrity of the mess is pretty much attributable to director Todd Phillips ("Old School", "Starsky and Hutch"). Wait for the DVD, and rent it for $1.00; don't buy it.

This 2006 remake of the 1960 classic British comedy of the same title might be of some value, but not as a form of entertainment. It demonstrates how some film remakes fail. In this case, it strays far from the tone and tenor of the original. And, in changing the setting (time, place and culture), it also replaces the smooth, sophisticated comedy of a story, with crass and crude. Indeed, a character like Billy Bob Thornton's and one or two others from this film in real life today would be the subjects of lawsuits.

The original film masterfully presented a story with subtle humor and outright comedy. This remake is a piece of trash that's not only humorless but vulgar and insensitive. It bombed at the box office and lost the makers many millions of dollars. One would think Hollywood would learn, especially when it comes to comedy. But some filmmakers and backers, who apparently like films like this that don't register with most of the movie-going populace, apparently have the bucks to throw away.

So, every so often, Hollywood tries to foist something like this on the public. But most audiences can tell a treat from a turd.

I gave this film an IMDb 6 (the equivalent of ***) for one reason and one reason only: Jon Heder.

Don't get me wrong, I love Billy Bob too, but he's lame in this movie; his character is pathetically written, and he does the best he can with wretched material, but this is NOT Bad Santa. No, this is an inferior retread of a different movie, and it ain't Napoleon Dynamite, which everyone keeps referring to. It ain't that film OR that character, mainly because (1) ND was a far superior movie, and (2) Heder's character in this movie has far more edge (more like the Scorpio he actually is). I think Heder's a genius, really, which of course Billy Bob is too, make no mistake - I did see Sling Blade and the aforementioned Bad Santa - but in this context, it's Heder who comes out ahead because (1) his character was better written, and (2) the camera plain loves this guy; no matter what he's doing he comes off sympathetic and credible. I believe eventually he should play a serial killer and he would prove this beyond all doubt.

As I was about to do a search on this film, I actually began to type in the words "school of missed opportunity", because that is what constantly comes to mind when trying to summarise this ill-conceived attempt to capitalise on Billy Bob Thornton's sudden notoriety as a master of flagrantly abusive interaction. And it is not like School For Scoundrels did not have a lot going for it, because the actors are rock-solid at all times. It is only when the screenplay lets them down that things really go awry. Jon Heder is a dopey foil for Billy Bob Thornton's merging of his Bad Santa character with the softer side of R. Lee Ermey's schtick. However, a problem emerges when we want to explore exactly why Heder's character so desperately yearns to be more assertive than his initial configuration allows. The screenplay errs in overpopulating the cast with too many characters and a lot of lopsided development. With the tuition fee that Thornton demands early in the piece, the initial class size looks like it could almost buy him a house in New York State.

This, unfortunately, is where the act begins to fall apart. In addition to a large classroom full of individuals that wind up unnamed, we also have to contend with the ins and outs of love interest Jacinda Barrett's social circle. The trick to a comedy like this is that one has to make the characters either pathetic in an endearing way or abusive in an endearing way. Bad Santa aced this trick. School For Scoundrels falls flat on its butt thanks to some performances from Sarah Silverman and David Cross that leave the more Powell-Aspie types in the audience like myself wanting to punch them. A film like this one needs as few main characters as possible, and these miserable sacks, along with half of the class, would have been the first to get deleted from my script. Aside from adding nothing to the story, they leave a bad taste in the mouth and distract from what actually works. Adding to the woes is that Thornton's presence leaves one constantly comparing SFS to Bad Santa, and SFS keeps coming off second best.

Thornton is capable of playing this role in his sleep, and the manner in which he delegates to Michael Clarke Duncan would have provided an interesting dynamic had the film been willing to go all of the way and turn into the sort of boot camp for Bad Santas that the audience might expect. Unfortunately, the cast overcrowding leaves Thornton and Duncan battling each other for space. Fortunately, they are more able to effectively manage the problem than the rest of the cast. If the focus had been more upon them, the film would have been a nonstop laugh-riot. Unfortunately, the film instead chooses to cast them as villains or antagonists. If Dr. P had been a genuinely altruistic man who merely wanted to help his fellow man reach his fellow man's full potential or something where a bit more thought is a requisite, for example, that might have made for more comedy. Still, Thornton and Duncan take a script that often seems to have added them as an afterthought and squeeze it for all it is worth.

No, the real problem is that their students are the kind of people that real drill sergeants of Thornton's or Duncan's apparent inclinations would look at and declare beyond helping. Heder is required to portray a gormless wimp at the beginning of the film, and a powerful man of action at the end. The problem is that he is quite a long way more convincing at one than he is at the other. People who have seen Bad Santa or The Ice Harvest will know which I mean already. I can already think of a thousand actors beside John Cusack who would have been a million times better in Heder's role than Heder. Hell, even Ben Stiller, who makes a cameo appearance in the final act, would have been a better choice. Nowhere is this more apparent than in scenes where Heder is in the same frame with Thornton. One of them is a charismatic man who one would take seriously if he told you he was going to punch you senseless. You do not have to have seen either actor's previous films in order to work out which I am describing there. Someone in casting should have seen that problem well in advance of production.

By now, I am sure that it sounds like I am condemning the film outright. However, with the element of surprise, SFS is a decent and watchable little comedy. The problem is that in the hands of a director or writer with more moxie, it could have been so much more. This gulf between what the film is and what the film could have been is on display from the second Thornton announces his presence in that indescribable manner one comes to expect of him. The A.V. Club is right on the money when they inform us that SFS is too flabby to be funny, as if it needed a drill instructor of its own in order to whip it into shape. Speaking as someone who unfortunately finds himself in need of a bit more than just Dr. P, I felt somewhat cheated once the credits had begun to roll. When I rented School For Scoundrels, I thought I had ordered a veal schnitzel with some fries and gravy. What I got instead was a steak that was comprised of fifty percent fat and ten percent bone. Sure, you can cull a decent sandwich out of this film, but that is the limit of it.

School For Scoundrels is a five out of ten film. It is worth a rental, maybe watching once, but the results you get from watching it all the way through will be inverse to your expectations.

This is a fun movie that offers exactly what the previews promise and a little more. John Heder does a great job as does Billy Bob Thornton. The only drawback of the plot is that we've seen it a million times before if you watch this genre of movie. Dr. P (Billy Bob Thornton) plays an overbearing and obnoxious school teacher teaching Roger (John Heder) and the other students how not to be wimps. The purpose of the course backfires when Roger finds out Dr. P does not like to be outdone. This movie could be compared to any comedy where the underdog must overcome the odds to win the girl. Regardless of the predictable plot, the comedy is clever and fun. This movie is worth seeing in the theater. The previews are faithful, but don't give away all of the humor. The humor is consistent throughout and it doesn't leave you tapping you fingers or looking at your watch.

Let's take a trip back in time, shall we? All the way back to August 29, 2006 when I unveiled my wildly hilarious and alarmingly accurate Weinstein Company Fall/Winter Preview. If you'll recall (and I'm sure y'all have my previews memorized), I was NOT looking forward to School for Scoundrels. For the sake of those who are too lazy to click on the link above, here are my initial assumptions:

"Sigh. Do we really need more Jon Heder movies? Plus, how good can a movie with Horatio Sanz be? My guess - not very. Ah well, Billy Bob Thornton and David Cross are in it, so maybe it has potential. Let's check out the trailer...

Huh. Is this supposed to be an unfunny 're-imagining' of Rushmore? That's certainly the vibe I'm getting. I think I laughed once, maybe twice during the trailer. Johnny's setting his expectations at LOW on this one. Can we sue the studio for including 'hilarious' in the synopsis and not delivering? FALSE ADVERTISEMENT!

Or maybe this is one of those rare films that's keeping the jokes out of the trailer and saving them for the film. Oh wait; Jon Heder and Horatio Sanz are in this, never mind."

Welp, let's examine my comments in light of the fact that I've now seen the film.

* Horatio Sanz' role is small enough for him not to do any damage (except to any chairs he sat in during the filming).

* Jon Heder still remains a one-trick circus act, and I pray I never see the guy in tighty whities again, but he's tolerable.

* David Cross' role is basically nonexistent, but the rest of the supporting cast is very good and elevates this to a level that Heder couldn't have managed on his own. Jon Glaser (the curly-haired dude from Conan O'Brien) steals every scene he's in. The movie is worth at least a rental if for nothing else other than the line, "There's no doubt in my mind that you'll be murdered." It's all in Glaser's deadpan delivery.

* Man, there's a whole lot of ugly in this movie. Juan Guzman, Horatio Sanz, Jon Heder, AND Billy Bob Thornton? They sure aren't given the ladies much enticement to see this, huh? This gives The Night Listener (Robin Williams, Toni Collette, Sandra Oh) strong competition for 2006's Ugliest Cast.

* As predicted, Billy Bob's presence does indeed help the proceedings, especially with condemnations on self-help books such as, "You can't help yourself because your self sucks." Good point.

* It does borrow the "teacher and student going after the same woman" theme found in Rushmore (and other films), but that's pretty much where the similarities end.

I'm not telling you to run out and pay full price to see it because this certainly won't appeal to everybody and I don't want anybody ganging up on me for giving this a blanket recommendation, but I will admit that it's much better than a movie with both Horatio Sanz and Jon Heder has any right to be.

There are some slow stretches, jokes that fall "Kate Moss flat," and the two leads fail to bring the movie's biggest laughs, but hey, there are laughs to be had, and that's good enough for me. If you're like many of the people who have told me, "I can't stand that Napoleon Dynamite dude" then it's probably best if you don't risk it.

THE GIST

School for Scoundrels doesn't demand to be seen on the big screen, but there are enough laughs to warrant a rental. If you insist on seeing it at the theater then make it a matinée, lower your expectations, and enjoy.

Jon Heder, dialing down the gawkiness of his breakthrough role in Napoleon Dynamite, stars as Roger, a spineless New York City meter maid prone to panic attacks and being picked on. He can't even muster the nerve to ask out the girl next door, Amanda, a warm-hearted Australian. Roger hits bottom when he's dumped (again) as a big brother, leading him to a secretive, cash-only class taught by Thornton's Dr. P, a self-styled self-help guru who shows weak men how to unleash their "inner lion." This films has an interesting story and premise but isn't all that great and it seems very usual compared to other films. At times it seems like it doesn't know what type of comedy it wants to be. Is it a black comedy that isn't dark enough? Or a dumb comedy that isn't stupid enough, or a gross-out comedy that isn't yucky enough? Or is it really just a romance comedy that isn't sweet enough? It starts out as a silly comedy then turns into a romantic comedy and ends that way. The film could have been much better but it wasn't so bad. Not very funny either. Decent and watchable film.