Writers: Tim Calpin/Kevin Jakubowski
Director: Brett Simon
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
The Plot
At a Catholic high school, the popular girl teams up with a sophomore newspaper reporter to investigate a case of stolen SAT exams. Once the duo target their suspects, a larger conspiracy is unearthed.
The Review
ANYWAY, besides these faults, the movie is enjoyable enough. The main character Bobby Funke (Thompson) is your typical loser who is trying to get into a journalism summer school and writes an article that defames the Student Body president (and resident cool guy) Paul Moore (Patrick Taylor) as the man who stole the SATs. From here, a bigger conspiracy is uncovered and yadda yadda noir movie.
The film is narrated by Funke as he journeys from writing this article to eventually solving the bigger mystery. The mystery itself is actually pretty decent, with seedy high schoolers playing a part and a cameo by Michael Rappaport for no reason whatsoever. The cast (save for Barton) do a really good job. As far as villains go, Ricky Delacruz (played by Robert Pattinson lookalike Vincent Piazza) is actually pretty badass, and I was rooting for him as opposed to against him. The main character of Bobby Funke is your typical bumbling high school loser, and while Thompson does a good job, you've seen the character hundreds of times before played way better.
The best part of the whole film is Bruce Willis, who plays the war veteran Principal Kirkpatrick. All the best moments belong to him, as well as the best line in the whole film: "I don't go to the strip club where you work and slap the dick out your mouth." That is something I will be quoting for a looooong time to come. Willis usually just goes through the motions, but here he actually gave it some effort and completely outshined the rest of the film.
Don't get me wrong, it's good and everything, but it's not memorable or worth watching a second time. Your best bet is to youtube the Bruce Willis parts and enjoy that, because as far as the rest of the film goes...it's not really worth the time.