Pánico a las tres

Another little known, rarely mentioned film that for unknown reasons fell between the cracks. When atrocities like The Wild Wild West and Men In Black I & II make hundreds of millions, it is an enigma that great films such as Three O'clock High languish in obscurity. I am an avid film buff but have no recollection of this movie ever being released. It only made 3.7 mil. at the box office, I wonder if the director stepped on the wrong toes and someone intentionally tanked the project? IMDb trivia says Stephen Spielberg executive produced it, but had his name removed from the credits. That is always a negative thing in Hollywood, something done in protest. Joanou's trivia says he once punched out a studio executive on the set, could this be that set? Very strange, and what a pity, because this is a very good film. I gave it a 10 to up it's IMDb rating, though it is probably more like an 8. It has it's moments, however, that are well worth checking out, that occasionally make it worthy of a 10.

One of the more enjoyable elements of this film is the photography. Director Joanou, who started in music videos, teams up with Barry Sonnenfeld, of Coen brothers fame, and makes for some highly stylized cinematography. Though some of it might seem passé today, keep in mind at the time it was made (1987) nobody was doing anything like it. Guy Ritchie seems to have been influenced by it... 13 years later.

Superb performances by the two leads, Casey Siemaszko and especially Richard Tyson as the bully. The only time I have seen Tyson match his caliber here was in, of all things, Something About Mary, but I still think he has it in him. He plays a great heavy. The film is a bit slow now and then. Certain bits could be completely removed and the film would be better off without it. Overall it is a good film and, save a little language, safe for kids. Also, great soundtrack by Tangerine Dream. Check it out.

This is a teen comedy from the 1980s, every bit as good as anything made by John Hughes in those days (Breakfast Club, 16 Candles, etc.).

The plot: our hero, Jerry, is assigned by the school newspaper to interview the new kid at school. The new kid, Buddy, is a big thug with an attitude. To make his reputation, Buddy bullies and intimidates Jerry, and tells Jerry that, come three o'clock, he is going to beat him up. Jerry spends the rest of the day trying to get out of participating in the fight.

The story is full of the usual parodies of teen-aged stereotypes, but they are somehow more believable and human than the characters in most films of this genre. The protagonist, for example, suffers from under-confidence resulting from being hypoglycemic. The story is all about him overcoming his under-confidence (a process we all go through in high school), which is a really common plot in teen movies. What comes through in this film is that *all* of the students are going through the same process. The cool, spooky girl next door turns out not to be so cool, underneath. The hero's buddy tries to help in the struggle, but gets sick of him and abandons him. The villainous tough ends up feeling ashamed of himself. These comic characters stick with you because they are so much like real teenagers: naive, under-confident, and overreaching.

This is a consistently overlooked and under-rated film. Fans of movies like Rushmore and Election may be surprised to learn that even during the John Hughes (Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, etc.) era there were still hip, funny movies being made about the high school experience.

The movie is shot in a mildly surreal "Coen brothers-esque" fashion that makes it a joy to look at, while the script is sharp and inventive. Despite its abstract nature, the script is very true to the realism of adolescent intimidation. Also not to be overlooked are some very clever performances by some lesser known performers which come off as very convincing.

Don't get me wrong, this is not a great film, very few are. If you consider Rushmore a 10 in this genre than Three O'clock High is about a 6 1/2 or a seven, but still well worth viewing.

You sense you're in for something a bit different when you hear the ticking of the clock in the first few seconds of the movie - a countdown to a personal doomsday for Jerry Mitchell (Siemaszko), in charge of the high school bookstore and a writer for the school paper. He's assigned to write an article on the new kid, Buddy Revell (Tyson). Only Revell is no kid; he's a hulking mass of unstoppable destruction and patently psychotic. As mentioned beforehand in the picture, he's also a 'touch-freak' so when Mitchell makes the fatal error in the bathroom, it's so foolish of him, you might think he deserves his fate. But no one deserves the amount of psychological torture he endures for the next few hours. Does all this sound like a comedy? Probably not, but it is - a dark satire on high school comedies. And it works like crazy.

As you watch Mitchell spiral downward further and further into an abyss, you begin to wonder where he'll end up. His many efforts to free himself, involving school security, robbery, pay-offs, and teacher seduction, only further entangle him in a nightmarish situation, heightened by various hints of how bloody his beating will be. You slowly realize, as the clock ticks towards an inevitable showdown, that Mitchell will get no sympathy, even from his friends; it's a stunning depiction of how necessary is an individual's self-reliance and self-direction of their own destiny. The whole thing would've fallen apart if there hadn't been a showdown, if Mitchell managed to avoid the confrontation. But there is a Showdown, with all the spectacle of a Roman coliseum and the roar of crowds - it's an exciting climax. The funniest scene for me was Mitchell in the office of 'Voytek Dolinsky', the school's gestapo disciplinarian.

Why is this movie not up there with 'The Breakfast Club,' 'Heathers,' and other teen rite-of-passage classics? 'Three O'Clock High' is hilarious. The cinematography is as well-executed as the script, and laughs appear at just about every turn. The mixed nuts in the cast give great deadpan performances (Jeffrey Tambor kills me every time as he heartbrokenly surveys the vandalized school supply store -- 'what kind of animals would DO this?' he almost weeps), playing up the comic absurdity of the script. A wonderful farce that hasn't lost a bit of its charm in 12 years. Why Anne Ryan, the hero's girlfriend, disappeared after this movie is a mystery to me -- she should have become another Winona Ryder. Don't pass this one up if your local video store has bothered to keep it on the shelf. You can thank me later. And if you're leery because the movie tanked at the box office, remember, Milli Vanilli's record sold seven million copies, so trusting the mainstream public is not always the best idea...