HIGH SCHOOL HIGH
A film review by Chuck Dowling
Copyright 1997 Chuck Dowling
High School High (1996) ** out of ***** - Cast: Jon Lovitz, Tia Carrere, Mekhi Phifer, Louise Fletcher. Written by: Robert LoCash, Pat Proft and David Zucker. Directed by: Hart Bochner. Running Time: 84 minutes.
"Spoof" movies are a difficult genre of film. In a given year there may be one released, sometimes two. There have been many great ones: The two "Airplane" films, "Top Secret", the two "Hot Shots" movies, and "The Naked Gun" trilogy. There have also been many dreadful ones: "Spy Hard", "Repossessed", and almost all of Mel Brooks' films. What the good ones have in common is in some way the participation of Jim Abrahams, Pat Proft, and Jerry and David Zucker. When they are involved in a spoof film, its usually guaranteed that a great deal of time has gone into the script, cramming it with as many jokes as possible, and sometimes with more jokes than possible.
Well, despite the presence of Pat Proft and David Zucker in the film's credits, "High School High" just isn't funny. With the good films of the genre, there will usually be about 85 minutes of comedy in the film's 90 minute running time. With "High School High", there's maybe 5 minutes of total comedy.
Jon Lovitz' comedic talents are wasted in this spoof of such films as "Dangerous Minds", "The Substitute", "Lean on Me" and "The Blackboard Jungle". He plays a naive school teacher who gets assigned to a run down, criminal-infested school (Marion Berry High, the film's best joke) and thinks he can make a difference in these kids lives. Fine, good so far. My problem here is that there are so many targets available for ridicule here, and NONE of which are capitalized upon. For example, no matter what your views of "Ebonics" are, you just can't deny that it's a made-up language. It's ridiculous. So why not make some jokes about it? Not here. Also, the soundtrack of the film is comprised of real rap songs. Why not make up some ridiculous rap songs? What struck me is that after about the first 15 minutes, the filmmakers actually started to try and make a SERIOUS movie. Granted the tone is comical, but there's just so much plot here, and the filmmakers ACTUALLY want us to care about it and the characters.
Late in the film there's actually a quick parody of a scene from "The Deer Hunter", which angered me because 1) hardly anyone watching the film will get the joke, and B) it's not even done well! Come on guys, if all of a sudden you're going to do that sort of thing, you had better do a good job with it.
A trend I've noticed in the genre since "The Naked Gun 2 1/2" is that makers of spoof movies have started to create moments of silence in order to give people a moment to laugh without missing anything. It's generally done by a character saying the joke, then cutting to another character who tilts their head like a dog hearing a high-pitch noise and then makes a puzzled face. It happens about 300 times in "High School High" and it couldn't be more annoying. And if you sit through this entire film you'll most likely come away with a puzzled face as well. [PG-13]
--Chuck Dowling
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