Even before going to see this film, I had to ask myself if I were not going to waste my hard earned cash on a really stupid film. After having seen it, I can assure you that it is indeed one of the year's stupider films, no matter that it has the very funny Jon Lovitz starring in it as the new idealistic teacher at Marion Barry High school (!).
High School High attempts to be AIRPLANE, NAKED GUN, DANGEROUS MINDS and STAND AND DELIVER all in one. Unfortunately, it lacks the comic genius of the first two and falls short of a really good spoof of the latter two. Lovits plays Richard Clark who chooses to leave a safe nepatistic position at a proper prep school run by his father in order to teach at the roughest school in the Inner City, Marion Barry High.
Most of the sight gags and put-on dialogue used to convey the "DANGEROUS MINDS" atmosphere of an inner city school plagued by violence and anti- academia appear to fall short of the mark. There are some very funny lines in the film, however, and some of the material takes on an almost Marx Brothers quality. Much of the material is just too predictable.
There is a very funny scene involving car chicken that must have come right out of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. At least, that's the thought that it elicited in me.
Most of the 90 minutes however were spent in apologizing to my date for having taken her to see the movie.
Jon Lovitz, no doubt, is a very funny dude who does his best with material which is not too good. He does manage to get some laughs from the audience.
Tia Carrere is still as beautiful as she was in WAYNE'S WORLD. She is a pleasure to look at, and not a bad actress, given the bad vehicles that she has appeared in.
Louise Fletcher, an actress I always enjoy watching, recaps Nurse Ratched as well as the drug pushing principal from DANGEROUS MINDS.
POSTSCRIPT: I just watched this movie a second time [October 5, 2014]. It's not as bad as I originally thought.
