American High School

This is a strange movie, as you can tell by reading the split in the reviews, but I think you have to understand that it belongs in the Glee or Strangers with Candy genre --- broad-brush satire that is well aware of how fake and silly it is --- not the Beverly Hills 90210 or Saved by the Bell earnest after school genre.

So the question, then, is how well does it perform within its genre? I think the answer is adequately, but not great. There are a few touches that are original and amusing, things like: the apparently deliberate choice of 30 yr old actors for the students, who therefore frequently can't be distinguished from the actors for the teachers. (This is even referenced/mocked at one point). Also the over-the-top awfulness of the wanna-be-cool Hollywood parent, or the lechery of the school principal. But overall the script is weak, not enough strong laughs, and some flat-out horrible scenes that are disgusting rather than amusing and that don't move the story along.

I'd say if you have some reason to study this particular genre (parodies of high school TV/movies) it's worth seeing for completeness sake; but if you simply want to be amused by the genre you're better off watching reruns of Glee or Strangers with Candy (or Glee Gone to College aka Scream Queens). There remains scope for a good movie in this genre. The best apparently similar movies (like American Pie) are more teenager than high school; and most of the specifically high school parody movies are more from the point of view of the teacher and too earnest, ala Sex Ed, or too sucky ala Bad Teacher; or are pastiche (High School High).

OK, I just spent an hour and a half watching this movie, another half hour making a "WTF" face and staring at the screen in disbelief, and some 10 minutes to write this comment, so all in all I've wasted more than two hours of my life.

First I'd like to say that I really, and I mean really, enjoy this type of movies, when I don't expect much and just want to relax my brain and enjoy in a few laughs. Not only that there were NO funny scenes in this movie (literally), but I also didn't relax, I mean this was brain torture! The characters are annoying, the plot is *put your favorite swear word here* stupid, the acting was awful (I have to give some credit to Jillian Murray though, she did OK, but that's about it, all the other actors sucked), the directing was even worse and I really can't find not one positive thing here. I don't know how many votes it takes to get to the bottom 100 list, but I hope it makes it there soon.

This is the first time I am giving a 1/10 to a movie (I usually try to find at least something good) and the first time I'm writing a comment here, but I just had to share my anger. Please don't watch this, staring at the wall for an hour and a half is more exciting, trust me.

Very funny movie! I wish my high school days were like that!! definitely your typical high school, this movie is a winner. Filled with hot girls and plenty of laughs American High School was a great buy, I'll definitely be watching this one over and over. American High School is not for the light hearted though, this movie contains heavy sexual content and drug references hence this movies "R" rating. Although this movie is about and uses High School in it's title I would recommend this movie to be watched by adults only...unless you're a senior in High School, haha. Overall I gave it a thumbs up and would recommend it to other people to watch.

I got to like, 9 minutes in, and i couldnt finish it due to how overly corny it was and how the acting was, at times, kinda bad.

Dont get me wrong. I found some enjoyment out of it but its not something I want to sit through and watch but because I started it now, I'm gonna have to finish it.

This is probably the only review submitted since 2009, which is when the movie came out so I can see the lack of interest this film may have.

Maybe I should look at what other films the director has done and see if they learned from this mistake.

But it is nice to sit back and watch something which hasnt got a high budget and decent acting in it.

Where do I start? I feel ashamed that I wasted the precious minutes of my life watching this movie past the 10th minute. First, most of the actors in this movie do not even deserve the title of "actor". It felt like the person who casted this movie just asked some of his best friends to be in the movie or picked people off the street. Seriously, this was some of the worst acting I have ever seen.

The next thing you'll notice is that the sound was totally amateur. It's as if they shot the movie with a video camera and didn't even think to use a microphone. But you can tell there was a sound mixer-- who probably works at a dry cleaning shop for his day job. There are some scenes where you're supposed to believe there is a crowd watching and you can just hear how cheesy the crowd sound effect is. Really, the sound on this film is embarrassing.

The plot. Who cares? This movie was made as if they just got together and made it up as they went along. I've heard Chinese torture is pretty bad, but it ain't got nothing on this movie.