THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 31, 1996 TAG: 9610300049
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: 59 lines
THE SETTING OF the surprisingly funny new comedy ``High School High'' is Marion Barry High School, a place that could charitably be described as a halfway house for Alcatraz.
There is a parking space reserved for the S.W.A.T. team. Metal detectors grace the hallways, and soda machines dispatch pre-bagged booze. In the teacher's lounge, the weary instructors mix martinis and read magazines about self-defense.
This is a comedy?
Exaggeration is the primary tool of parody, and we can only hope that ``High School High'' is exaggeration. It comes in the category of ``you might as well laugh.''
Jon Lovitz, in his first leading film role, is the idealistic teacher who, in spite of the odds, feels he can reach these students. He refuses to say goodbye to ``Goodbye Mr. Chips'' as he urges the ``boys and girls'' to straighten up and get an education.
The film is full of ethnic and racial stereotypes that, if taken seriously, are quite offensive. But, after all, this is meant to be a joke. The writers are David Zucker, Robert LoCash and Pat Proft, all of whom have mischievous bents.
The Zucker brothers, of whom we have only one represented here, are masters of parody via visual gags going back to the never-topped ``Airplane!'' The genre has fallen on bad times recently, though, with the likes of ``Dracula: Dead and Loving It'' and ``Spy Hard.'' Once again, the writers attempt three or four gags for every one that works, but ``High'' is nonetheless intermittently hilarious.
Louise Fletcher, Oscar winner for ``One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,'' lands right in the cuckoo's nest as a Nurse Ratched-style principal. She maintains that she's only ruling these kids ``until they can be sent to a real jail.''
The aim, of course, is to spoof all those good-teachers-in-bad-situations movies from Glenn Ford in 1955's ``Blackboard Jungle'' to Michelle Pfeiffer in ``Dangerous Minds.''
``High School High'' may have commercial trouble in that the older audiences, who might most enjoy it, are likely to avoid it.
As a comedy of our times, we can only hope these are not really our times. In any case, it's just a joke - and one that often works. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by TRISTAR PICTURES
Jon Lovitz plays an idealistic young teacher welcomed to a notorious
inner city school with a barrage of spitballs.
Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``High School High''
Cast: Jon Lovitz, Tia Carrere, Louise Fletcher
Director: Hart Bochner
Screenplay: David Zucker, Robert LoCash and Pat Proft
MPAA rating: PG-13 (sexual situations, language, drugs)
Mal's rating: two stars and 1/2 stars by CNB