BRUCE WILLIS WAS GOOD...but the story somewhat lacked. Mischa Barton seemed a little old for a HS girl. I guess she had a contract which forced her to appear topless in a bath tub. Willis' character is funny. The movie, I suppose is modern times, although Willis has a picture of Ike in his office as well as a TV from the 1950's. One family has a bean bag chair, then there are disco lights at the dance. I was confused as to the time period. The music at the dance was modern and there was a bad reference to a cell phone, but none of the kids have a cell phone. Once you get past the weirdness of the time period, the movie settles down to a so-so who-dun-it, with twists (the box tells you there are twists so they are expected). The first person narration throughout much of the movie got to be boring. I did enjoy the "John Wilkes Booth" limp of the assassin, as well as the character of the school nurse. The Spanish teacher was supposed to be quirky but really was bland due to a bad script. I think the movie would have been better if they added another quirky teacher or two to the mix as background characters similar to the Spanish teacher.

This is a minority opinion, perhaps, but I found the film charming and the allusions to Chinatown, amusing, particularly the ending. Willis is hilarious as a drill sergeant principal.The movie is a light spoof, so nobody should expect Citizen Kane or Chinatown, for that matter, but the observations about high school are dead on. I especially loved Willis obsessing over whether a student trying to warn him about the corruption all around him is chewing gum. Think Heathers, with less bite.

I was encouraged to watch this as it is classified as comedy here on IMDb. And I'm in love with Comedy movies. So I got the movie and watched it and for my disappointment I closed it from the half of the movie. I didn't find any comedy in the movie nor any action. I really regretted watching this movie as it was very boring, I could hardly complete it again after closing it twice in the middle. The story is not that cool, it is not hilarious as some members reviewed it and it is not so interesting. I recommend not wasting your time watching this movie and I don't know how it got more than 6 rating stars.

Refreshingly Noir, thats what I think of when I watch this movie. Its a good old school conspiracy theory mystery with only one man who can see past the smoke screen that the conspirator/s throw in front of everyones faces. I love the fact that its done in a spoof way taking elements like making the backdrop a high school, turning characters into classic Noir characters, eg. the principal = mayor. And the fact that the actors push their lines too much making it overly dramatize fueling the parody of it all; which makes it all so very humorous. Also, like most mystery movies, you continuously second guess who did the crime because the movie makes twists and turns that put you to the edge of the seat until just before it all wraps up, you figure out the true person/s behind it all and watch as the past hour of questions and back stepping all unravel in front of you into the perfect crime. Over all, this is a movie to see; its spoofs Film Noir but also praises it with the execution of the acting, the script, and even the camera work giving you those angles that make any movie way more eerier. Straight to DVD cant stop this movie, its truly a mystery to see, refreshingly Noir. Now all we need is for a real Film Noir movie to come around soon.