High School

Have a bong is the main message of this extremely unstructured, but at the same time hilarious movie about how to protest against drug testing in high schools.

Well known faces of todays entertainment world makes this meshwork of teenage comedy work even today, loads of stuff i guess is very spontainously acted, however the script and fixed ideas about high school comedie genre have had some new takes to it, i just wonder why this title hasnt been recopied into todays world, with a better script and story that this.

But the grumpy old man gives a recommend.

Be sure to stay after the credits for the bonus scene! Way better than I thought it would be, they really botched the trailers for this one. Hanks give a great performance. Being close friends with someone who works in public education I can say that the characters in this film do exist out there in real life. Unlike many other films in this genre there is not gratuitous amounts of time spent showing people actually consuming the herb, the screen time is instead spent on plot and some really funny jokes. The characters have some depth which helps pull you in to the story. Not nearly as many stereotypes as I was expecting. Our theater had both young and old alike in attendance and everyone was laughing at all the right spots. Slam or beer or something before you go to get in the mood, hehehehe "Whut?"

The first 35 minutes of High School is some of the most comedy I have seen this year. Yea its in the vein of the Apatow/Seth Roganequse vein of witty banter and ridiculous situations. Unfortunately this films script is so sub plot ridden and contrived it losses me at a lot of places and as the movie goes on the novelty stops working.

Slacker/Stoner/High School Outcast films can work on many levels as character pieces, comedies, faux-action, satires, dramas, romances etc etc, there is very little that hasn't been tried and there is very little that hasn't had a good variation of said sub-genre. High School tries to do it all and its got that copy paste feel only a lazy screenplay can have.

Once again, there are some weird good things about this film, the people being high isn't always super over blown. Matt Bush owns his role pretty well. While Brody and Chikilas are over the top and having fun with what they have to do but it doesn't go anywhere there isn't anything new but at the same time its too all over the place to be a homage to stoner films of yesteryear.

If you like stoner comedies its worth a rental and there is stuff to laugh at but there isn't much of comfort zone in between laughs and boredom.

5/10

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."

"Drugs, fornicating, a grown man singing about his feelings, it's time we win this war, expunge this school of all dope fiends." Henry Burke (Bush) has everything going for him. He has a scholarship to MIT and is in line to be his classes valedictorian. After an accident leads to detention he is brought back together with his old friend Travis (Marquette). They decide to take a break that night and unwind with a joint. After the school's representative in the national spelling bee loses it on TV the principal (Chiklis) institutes a mandatory drug test for everyone in the school. Fearing he will lose everything Henry and Travis come up with a plan. I am not really a fan of "stoner' comedy (I did like the Harold & Kumar movies) but the plot to this and the cast made it seem interesting to me. I was not disappointed. Adrien Brody is very funny as the man they steal from and Colin Hanks is good as a clueless asst. principle but Michael Chiklis steals the movie. Playing a clueless borderline pervert in charge of the school he is perhaps the funniest clueless principal since Ed Rooney. This is a very different style of stoner comedy and it is more like "Girl Next Door" then "Pineapple Express". This is nothing amazing but I enjoyed it and laughed quite a bit. Overall, a funny movie you can just put in and not think about, those are fun sometimes. I give it a B.