A very funny stoner comedy that you’d have to be high not to enjoy! – Will
An aspiring high school valedictorian winds up getting high with the local stoner the day before finals. They also learn that random drug testing starts the same day and anyone found with drugs in their system will be expelled. They come up with a plan to get the entire school high so the drug testing will be a failure.
Directed by – John Stalberg
Written by – Erik Linthorst, John Stalberg, Stephen Susco
Starring – Adrien Broday, Michael Chiklis, Colin Hanks, Matt Bush, Sean Marquette, Adhir Kalyan, Mykelti Williamson, Andrew Wilson, Yeardley Smith, Michael Vartan, Curtis Armstrong
I’ve always enjoyed a good stoner comedy and High School works perfectly. It’s got laughs from start to finish and, I can’t believe I’m saying this but, it could have used more Adrien Brody. He was freaking hilarious in the movie but he only appears towards the start of the film, a tiny bit in the middle and another little bit at the end. The idea is that the valedictorian Henry (Matt Bush) gets high one night with the local stoner Travis (Sean Marquette) who is an old friend, sort of. What Travis thinks was a funny moment when they were kids isn’t exactly Henry’s idea of a good time. They find out the next day that the principal of the school wants to clean things up and will be doing drug testing on all students and expelling those who fail. The only way to save Henry’s squeaky clean reputation and his chance to graduate is to get the entire school high so everyone fails the drug testing, making it a pointless attempt since you can’t really expel the whole school.
So how do you get an entire school high? Easy, you steal a super strain of weed from the local drug dealer Psycho Ed (Adrien Brody) and make a giant batch of pot brownies which replaces all the normal brownies the school is selling on the day of the drug testing. This leads everyone in the school to get high, including all the staff. Hilarity ensues! Really, once you’ve got an entire school high the jokes become the same. It’s scene after scene of someone doing something stupid that only a stoner would do but that’s why these movies can really succeed. That’s how stoners act and it’s hard not to laugh at it. I know I was having a good time and the audience was howling with laughter.
Henry and Travis can save themselves and all they have to do is steal $15,000 worth of pot and get an entire school high. No problem for the local stoner!
There really isn’t too much to say about this one really. It’s a stoner flick and if you’ve seen one than you’ve really seen them all. Lots of pot jokes and plenty of scenes of people who wouldn’t normally be high getting high without knowing it. They then go off and do the dumbest stuff possible all to the delight of the audience. Don’t worry, I’m not knocking the movie. It really is very funny even if I’ve seen all the jokes before. Probably the two best performances were Adrien Brody as the psychotic drug dealer and Michael Chiklis as the principal. Chiklis is perfect as the seemingly straight-laced, stuck up principal but as the film goes on you get to see just how demented he really is and it was hilarious. Brody finally has a role that doesn’t make me want to slap him after having to suffer watching him in Predators, Splice and Giallo.
Normally a little Adrien Brody is a good thing but here there needed to be more of him.
Actually, Adrien Brody was probably my favorite part of the movie. He’s so tweaked out and wacky and every moment he was in the movie was more funny than the last. It’s too bad he’s just not in it that much, especially since the trailer seems to sell it as his movie. I found it very funny and this was at the end of a very long weekend at the festival. I must be getting old because it’s been hard this year to make it to the end of some of the days. Three movies in the theater for two days in a row running on 4 hours sleep a night was taking its toll. Since it was so funny when I was worn out says a lot and I imagine on a second viewing when fully rested would probably be even more funny. I just wish they had more Brody in there. Man, I can’t believe I’m saying that!
Under the marquee – Will
“A very funny stoner comedy that you’d have to be high not to enjoy!” Great line! I always enjoy a good laugh, I will definitely put this on the list! There are so many promising films from this years After Dark to put on the list!! I definitely have to plan a vacation to Toronto for next years fest.
It was all about Adrien Brody, I couldn’t believe how much I liked him in this movie and I wish he had been in it more. As far as stoner flicks go it wasn’t my favorite but it hits all the same stoner jokes as many other films but on a much larger scale since an entire high school winds up being high.
It brought in a completely different After Dark crowd and there was a lot more than the smell of popcorn in the air that night.