Four high school students look to redefine themselves after graduation.
Similar titles
You May Also Like
Reviews
It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.
hyped garbage
Expected more
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
It's an hour and a half of my life I'll never get back. Poor story + poor plot + poor charachters. All in all, it's just a way to waste your time.
I can see what this movie was trying to do - a bright, fun and feel-good smart movie about a group of "nerds" graduating high school, who want to make up for all the experiences they missed in high school before they go to their respective ivy league colleges. Unfortunately, instead you got a 20% there movie that made me cringe more than it made me laugh. The characters were two dimensional, at best. It focused primarily on the least interesting character - in an attempt to give him some depth maybe? The two other guys, Lion and Spice, were completely overlooked - despite the fact that they both had a lot more potential than the main guy. As for the girl, her primarily role was that of a "woah she's actually hot!" nerd-girl-who-takes-her-glasses off. The plot was predictable, riddled with unrealistic and unnecessary moments, the dialogue didn't do anything. Most scenes were either cut too short for anything to be developed, or developed so far that it wasn't even satirical or funny; it was just overkill. "Good kids" treads on the coming-of-age, feel-good youth high school movie - only without any nuance, any likable characters, any ability to resonate with an audience.
This movie treads the same ground as countless other teen summer comedies only it does it considerably worse. The characters manage to be both 2 dimensional and thoroughly unlikable, each scenes drifts into another with no real sense of purpose or momentum and so much of it is worthy of being cut you would struggle to make this into a reasonable short film. There is an underlying sense of bitterness from the writer/director across this film and everything in it just seems lazy. Most of the actors are fine with the very little they are given but don't be surprised if you find yourself 20 minutes into this film feeling like its been more than an hour. If somebody spent money on this, they've wasted it.
Writer/Director Chris McCoy was born in 1981 but, to all intents and purposes, he may as well have come from the 1960s, because, for all its pretense about edginess, the standards and values for this soggy teen coming-of-age story may as well have been plucked from a Doris Day/Rock Hudson romcom.Now, ordinarily this is the part of the review where I reassure the reader that, in spite of one of the worst scripts in recent memory, there are loads of other good things here to keep viewers enthralled and entertained.Sorry, that kind of happy ending only happens in movies, not in reviews of movies. Unlike fine wine, this one does not get better the more time you spend with it.The cast tries hard with the material they are given but sadly that is not enough. (The single exception being Zoey Deutch, who was perhaps the only thing worth watching in Vampire Academy and once again offers the only character worth following in this outing. Deutch has that rare mix of innocence, wisdom and sassiness, bringing to mind an early Diane Keaton. With more edge.) It is also astonishing how a film that tries (unsuccessfully) to base itself on sex has virtually none. This can't be a censorship thing because the other day I was re-reviewing 1978's Animal House (great film!) and that 40 year old flick had more raunch and nudity. So, once again this has to be a director/writer thing -- see comments above on this topic.The only one in the entire film who seems to be having more fun than Deutch is Ashley Judd playing a cougar who sets her sights on one of the young boys in the ensemble cast. You almost get the feeling that she waived her usual fee just to take the part.Judd and Deutch generally have a great time here. The audience, not so much. If it is entertainment you want, pick up a copy of Ferris Bueller or Emma Stone's Easy A.