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School for Scoundrels
Movie Stats & Links |
| Starring: |
Jon Heder, Billy
Bob Thornton, Michael Clarke Duncan, Matt Walsh, Horatio
Sanz, Jacinda Barrett |
| MPAA Rated: |
PG-13 |
| Released By: |
The Weinstein Company |
| Web Site: |
www.schoolforscoundrels-movie.com |
| Kiddie Movie: |
They probably
won't get it. |
| Date Movie: |
Only if you hate
them. |
| Gratuitous Sex: |
Some THO's, but
that's about it. |
| Gratuitous
Violence: |
Slapstick. |
| Action: |
Nah. |
| Laughs: |
There's a chuckle
here and there. |
| Memorable
Scene: |
The paintball
fight was pretty funny. |
| Memorable
Quote: |
None. |
| Directed By: |
Todd Phillips |
| Produced By: |
Daniel Goldberg,
Geyer Kosinski, Todd Phillips |
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School for Scoundrels
A Movie Review |
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Don’t you hate it when a trailer doesn’t live up to the
actual movie? I know I do, and sadly, this time it was for a
movie that seemed to have a lot of promise, or at least
some, in the likes of "School for Scoundrels." Here’s the
story.
Roger (Jon Heder) is a loser. Wait a minute, as Dr. P.
(Billy Bob Thornton) explains it, Roger isn’t a loser.
Losers are those who actually attempt to achieve a goal yet
fail. Roger, sadly, hasn’t even tried to do anything. He’s
in a crappy job, gets panic attacks at the drop of a hat,
and even the kids at the local center looking for Big
Brothers don’t want him as a brother. Life pretty much sucks
for Roger, and then he is given a mysterious phone number
for a mysterious self-help class taught by the mysterious
Dr. P. and his assistant Lesher (Michael Clarke Duncan). And
so Dr. P. begins his attempt to transform a class of
insecure sad-sacks into men of the world, as long as they
don’t get too confident in their own right. Dr. P. does so
by having his class, at any given time, start a
confrontation (even if it means getting a swirly (and how
many grown men actually give others swirlies anymore?)),
have a paintball tournament, and learn how to pick up women
with such brilliant advice as "lie, lie, and lie some more."
But Dr. P.’s methods do work a bit as Roger finally gets up
the nerve to ask out his neighbor, Amanda (Jacinda Barrett),
and they actually have a good time. Suddenly Roger is too
confident for Dr. P., so the bad doctor decides he must
truly destroy Roger’s life in much the same way we find out
he destroyed a previous student’s life, in this case said
student being Lonnie (Ben Stiller).
And the war is on.
Dr. P. woos Amanda and makes Amanda think Roger is a
serial killer. Roger impounds Dr. P.’s car. Dr. P. gets
Roger fired. Blah, blah, blah. In all honesty their war is
pretty lame, and yea, Roger ends up with Amanda, but by this
time, who really cares?
Somehow something went wrong with "School for
Scoundrels." I don’t know if it was because somehow ass-rape
was introduced, I don’t know if it was the painting of a dog
(alright, that was sort of funny), I don’t know if it was
the introduction of Lonnie, and I don’t know if it was just
that the "war" between Dr. P. and Roger wasn’t that
creative. All I do know is that for a movie that had a ton
of potential, with Dr. P. being the total alpha-male to a
bunch of dorks, it was actually when Dr. P. and Roger
started fighting over Amanda that the movie turned from sort
of cute to mostly stupid.
I did laugh a couple of times, but for the most part I’ve
got to say you should be waiting for cable to catch "School
for Scoundrels." It’s 1 ½ stars out of 5 for this movie.
That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!!
L8R!!! |
