High School High

''High School High'' is a 1996 American comedy film about an inner city high school in the Los Angeles, California area, starring Jon Lovitz, Tia Carrere, Mekhi Phifer, Louise Fletcher, Malinda Williams, and Brian Hooks. It is a spoof of movies concerning idealistic teachers^{(see e.g. '' To Sir, with Love'')} being confronted with a class of cynical teenagers, disengaged by conventional schooling, and loosely parodies ''Blackboard Jungle'', '' High School Confidential'', ''The Principal'', ''Dangerous Minds'', '' Lean on Me'', ''The Substitute'', '' Stand and Deliver'', and '' Grease''. The film is dedicated to the memories of casting director Elisabeth Leustig and actor Lexie Bigham, both of whom were killed in automobile crashes shortly after filming was completed.

Plot

Richard Clark is an unsatisfied prep school teacher at the fictional Wellington Academy, who accepts a job at inner city Marion Barry High School, much to the chagrin of his boss and father, Wellington headmaster Thaddeus Clark. Richard arrives to find the school in a state of disarray and disorder, while meeting several students and faculty members including: the blunted, soured, and uninspiring principal, Evelyn Doyle, her cheerful assistant Victoria Chappell and student Griff McReynolds.

Despite initial opposition to his teaching style and harassment from the school gang leader Paco, Richard begins connecting with his students and teaches them effectively, while developing a romantic relationship with Victoria. Barry High eventually is transformed into a fine educational establishment. Frustrated, Paco and his gang tamper with the school's final exam scores, causing everyone to fail. Griff, who grew to see Richard as a mentor, loses faith in him, as does the rest of the school and Richard is fired. Griff subsequently joins Paco's gang to make extra money.

Victoria learns through word of mouth that Paco was behind the failing test scores and rushes to inform Richard, who decides to confront Paco and rescue Griff with the help of several of his students, including Anferny Jefferson, Natalie Thompson and Julie Rubels. By deceiving Mr. DeMarco, a local gangster, Richard and Victoria reach Paco and the local crime boss, "Mr. A", whom they find has been Principal Doyle the entire time. Griff is told the truth about the test scores and after a brief fight, Paco, Doyle and DeMarco are arrested.

Richard (now principal of Barry High) presides over the graduation ceremony and proudly names Griff as the class valedictorian. The six main students of the film graduate (but only those six). Richard makes good on his promise to send Griff to college and is in a relationship with Victoria.

Cast

* Jon Lovitz as Richard Clark, a naive, mild-mannered white teacher whose main goal is to help the underachieving students at Marion Barry High School succeed.
** Lovitz also plays his own mother.
* Tia Carrere as Victoria Chappell, the principal's assistant who sympathizes with Richard, as well as with the troubled students at Marion Barry High.
* Louise Fletcher as Principal Evelyn Doyle, a mean-spirited, uncaring principal who doesn't believe in the academic abilities of a single student at her school and has given up on them. She also takes an immediate dislike to Richard and believes that he will fail.
* Mekhi Phifer as Griff McReynolds, one of Clark's students. A former gang member who is one of the few students at Marion Barry High who aspires to graduate high school and attend college.
* Malinda Williams as Natalie Thompson, Griff's girlfriend who used to date Paco, Griff's one time gang partner-turned-nemesis.
* Guillermo Díaz as Paco de la Vega al Camino Cordoba Jose Cuervo Sanchez Rodriguez Jr., Griff's former gang partner.
* Brian Hooks as Anferny Jefferson, one of Clark's students. He is a slightly dimwitted gang member who only knows of urban pop culture.
* Natasha Gregson Wagner as Julie Rubels, one of Clark's students who is a teenage mother with many children.
* Marco Rodríguez as Mr. DeMarco, a gangster who is in the midst of a shady "business" deal with Paco and another mysterious gangster known as "Mr. A".
* John Neville as Thaddeus Clark, Richard's father.
* Lexie Bigham as Two-Bags, a member of Paco's gang.
* Gil Espinoza as Alonzo, a member of Paco's gang.
* Baoan Coleman as Mou Mou Bartender

Release

The film opened at #2 on the weekend of October 25, 1996, behind the film ''Sleepers''. The film remained in the top 5 for the next two weekends.

Reception

The film received generally negative reviews upon its release. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 19% rating based on reviews from 16 critics, with an average rating of 4.3/10. On Metacritic, it has a score of 33 based on reviews from 10 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+ on scale of A to F.

Roger Ebert gave the film 1 stars out of 4, and said "the movie makes two mistakes: (1) It isn't very funny, and (2) it makes the crucial error of taking its story seriously and angling for a happy ending."

Andrew Hindes wrote in ''Variety'' that "the problem with ''High School High'' isn’t that it always goes for the cheap laugh, but that it fails at getting it so often. Like a student who studies hard but just doesn’t have the smarts, this joyless send-up of the ''Dangerous Minds'', '' Stand and Deliver'', idealistic-teacher-in-a-ghetto-school genre plods along earnestly with barely passing grades. B.O. prospects appear below average: Given the lack of youth-oriented fare in the marketplace, target teen audiences may fill seats early in the semester, but attendance is likely to drop off quickly."

Upon its video release in March 1997, Michael Sauter wrote in ''Entertainment Weekly'' that "uplifting inner-city high school movies on the order of ''Dangerous Mind''s get an overdue but underinspired send-up in this occasionally funny spoof cowritten by David Zucker (''The Naked Gun'')", adding that "despite a steady stream of such typical Zucker sight gags, this parody’s pace is surprisingly slack. Even the TV tube’s reduced, sitcom-friendly confines aren’t enough to hide the holes of ''High School High''."

Soundtrack

A soundtrack containing hip hop and R&B music was released on August 19, 1996 via Big Beat Records. The album peaked at No. 20 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and at No. 4 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and was also certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling over 500,000 copies in the United States.

See also

* List of hood films

References

External links

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Yahoo! Movies page

{{Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker

1996 films
1990s parody films
1990s teen comedy films
American high school films
American parody films
American teen comedy films
Films about educators
Slapstick films
TriStar Pictures films
Films scored by Ira Newborn
Films directed by Hart Bochner
Films with screenplays by David Zucker (filmmaker)
Films with screenplays by Pat Proft
1996 comedy films
1990s English-language films
1990s American films