High School High (1996): Dir: Hart Bochner / Cast: Jon Lovitz, Tia Carrere, Mekhi Pfifer, Louise Fletcher, Malinda Williams: The sight of bagged liquor bottles dispensed through soda machines is the one brief sight joke that works in this failed formula crap. Tired of his old school, teacher Jon Lovitz accepts a position at an inner city school where his car is stolen but his steering wheel lock remains. His classroom consists of loose floorboards and walls that cave to staples. None of this is very interesting although director Hart Bochner has timing on his side. Despite his efforts Lovitz is unable to elevate his role above conventions. His role is cardboard and by the numbers as he struggles to find a technique to reach these students. Tia Carrere is wasted as another teacher. She is basically there to provide a possible love interest. Louise Fletcher plays the principal as a homage to her role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest but to a lesser degree. Mekhi Pfifer plays a student seeking opportunity but the role is never funny. Malinda Williams plays his cardboard girlfriend. This pushes a potential message of hard work and study that all but drains any remaining humour possibilities. It makes fun of the education system but for a superior high school comedy check out Fast Times at Ridgemont High and tossed this failed comedy in the detention room. Score: 2 / 10

It wasn't until fairly recently when I first knew this 1996 comedy existed. It's a parody of movies about teachers who get jobs at corrupt schools and try to make a difference. I was only ten years old when this came out, and it's a PG-13 rated film. When I first came across a copy of it in the video store over a decade later, I saw that the lead role was played by Jon Lovitz, a comedian I was familiar with. The film was also written by David Zucker, Robert LoCash, and Pat Proft, and I had previously seen comedies which they were involved in. Before seeing "High School High", I knew it wasn't a very popular spoof movie, but there was still a chance I could find laughs in it, especially with Lovitz in the starring role, and I did. However, unsurprisingly, most of these laughs were small ones, and in the end, I was not left very pleased by the movie.Richard Clark is a teacher who leaves Wellington Academy with another teaching job waiting for him at Marion Barry High School. Unfortunately, he quickly learns that working here will not be a pleasant experience, as this is a very dangerous school full of crime, where the students in general are deeply troubled and constantly get poor marks, and it doesn't look like they have a bright future ahead of them. After arriving at the school on his first day, Clark soon meets the hotheaded principal, Evelyn Doyle, and his first conversation with her turns out to be an embarrassing one, but he then meets an administrative assistant named Victoria Chapell, and falls in love with her. Despite how much trouble Clark's class puts him through, he remains determined to somehow guide them in a different direction, and has his new girlfriend to help him, but obviously, he's going to face more than one problem along the way!Around the time I started watching this high school movie spoof, I certainly wasn't always keeping a straight face, but it didn't exactly look that promising. The first part that made me laugh fully might have been the protagonist, on his first day teaching at Marion Barry High, getting rivals to shake hands in the hall, and unfortunately, not too many gags made me laugh that hard after that. There are some fairly unimpressive sight gags and I didn't really like most of the characters. There certainly were a number of scenes that made me at least smile or laugh just a little, which may not have been the case without a talented comedian like Jon Lovitz in the starring role, and eventually found at least one touching moment. For this, I feel I COULD be giving "High School High" a 6/10 instead of a 5, but definitely no higher than that. I won't advise people to avoid this movie at all costs, but can understand why it doesn't even come close to having the same kind of reputation as "Airplane!" and "The Naked Gun".

Although it was co-written by David Zucker, this comedy is more conventional than, say, the "Naked Gun" series; it doesn't have the same rapid-fire, relentless pacing. However, it does have a number of successful gags (when the teacher enters the ghetto area, his car radio will play ONLY rap music), and, of course, the gorgeous Tia Carrere....wow! (**)

Jon Lovitz stars in a movie so bad, it had to go under my label of `brilliant stupidity,' which is a good thing by my standards. Not only was the humor great, the jokes in the film proved to be funny without the overabundance of potty jokes and bodily excrement. There are so many great moments to high light in this film, and it hits its marks pretty most of the time. Tia Carrere was also good in this film, being out of place yet ravishing in her role. One of those films you need to watch with friends or when drunk, or both.