This is a movie so bad I felt a public service announcement was warranted.
Plot: A bunch of whiny, self-absorbed stereotypes decide to steal the answers to the SAT test and cheat their way into college. It’s like the Breakfast Club crossed witha heist flick.
Writing: Cliched, trite, hackneyed, unrealistic, predictable, stupid, witless and derivative
Casting: A bunch of twentysomethings who look like underwear models and can’t act.
Acting: mostly sucks. The only two vaguely interesting characters are the two requisite minorities, the black “jock,” and the the Asian “pothead.”
Directing: Sucks. Bad pacing, inconsistent tone, unfunny gags, horribly trite “teen movie” scenes (for example, the “good girl” standing on a rooftop with a decorative male cast member giving a speech about how she’s “never been kissed on a rooftop.” Excruciating).
Redeeming features: The black basketball player is not predictably illiterate or dumb. Too bad his mother is the sterotypical “single-black-mom-who-won’t-take-nonsense” which has become the new cliche to show that the movie doesn’t sterotype. She’s basically the woman in the anti-pot commercials (“when I say no weed I mean no weed.”)
Most annoying theme: The constant preaching about how “unfair” the SAT is. It’s accused of being racist and sexist but the movie never explains how this is so. Somehow these kids are all victims of standardized testing because it can’t measure who the “really are.” I’ve got new for these idiots…who they “really are” is a bunch of whiny losers who aren’t smart enough to score well on the SAT.
It’s seldom I see a movie bad enough that I feel the urge to publicly warn people away from it (I can generally avoid ever seeing them in the first place) but if you’re thinking of attending this stinker, don’t.