High School High

1996 Comedy

In this comic send-up of dramas set in urban schools (such as Lean on Me and Dangerous Minds), Jon Lovitz plays Richard Clark, a teacher who is persuaded to give up his position at Wellington Academy, an upscale private school (where the receptionist cheerfully answers calls with the question "Are you white?"), to take over a class at Marion Barry High School in Inner City, U.S.A. Marion Barry High is a far cry from the ivory-tower atmosphere of Wellington; the statue in the courtyard holds a crack pipe, the Michigan Militia sets up a booth for career day, and there's so much violence on campus that the school has its own graveyard; however, Clark is determined to reach his thick-headed charges, and he hopes to also make an impression on Victoria Chappell (Tia Carrere), a beautiful woman also on the teaching staff. Clark does battle with Evelyn Doyle (Louise Fletcher), the school's militaristic principal, in an effort to raise standards for the school's star straight-C students, and he finds that he's getting through to one of the school's toughest students, Grig (Mekhi Phifer). Screenwriters Pat Proft and David Zucker helped create The Naked Gun and its follow-ups. more..

Director: Hart Bochner

Starring: Jon Lovitz, Tia Carrere,Mekhi Phifer, Louise Fletcher, Malinda Williams

Reviews

  • The Naked Gun writing team and actor-turned-director Hart Bochner do unto the stereotype of inner-city high schools what needs to be done to stereotyped inner-city high schools -- parody them silly -- in this high-flying, low-comedy production.

    Lisa Schwarzbaum - Entertainment Weekly

    26 April 2013

  • Stupid yet cogent, High School High is a rapid-fire gag machine that's dopey enough to get belly laughs and smart enough to earn a C-plus as engaging entertainment.

    Peter Stack - The San Francisco Chronicle

    26 April 2013

  • 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.

    - Variety

    26 April 2013

  • There's not much sense to the plot. But the film makers' blunderbuss approach to humor, with visual and verbal jokes coming in profusion and scattering high and low, guarantees that just about every funnybone is bound to be hit, some more than once.

    Lawrence Van Gelder - The New York Times

    26 April 2013

  • 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.

    Roger Ebert - The Chicago Sun-Times

    26 April 2013

Awards

No awards