Demolition High

To get started, I gotta say I love my one-line summary. It works on so many levels. OK, with that out of the way it's true that this low budget "Die Hard in a high school" is moderately amusing, but even moderately amusing is like finding gold as far as Jim Wynorski movies of the past decade or so go. Poor Jim's last really good film was "Hard to Die" and that was 1990. He made three films in 1996: This, "Vampirella", and "The Assault" so trust me when I say nowadays to paraphrase Meatloaf, ONE outta THREE for Mr. Wynorki ain't bad. Not to over-hype this movie as it's still not as good as his movies from his heyday of the '80's, just that I'm glad that this film isn't a total turd.

My Grade: C

Where I saw It: Showtime

Terrorists take over a high school and hold everyone hostage, but the one thing they didn't count on was troublemaker bad boy Corey Haim! Pretty much "Die Hard" in a high school with Haim as John McClane, Alan Thicke as Sgt. Powell, and Dick Van Patten as the government man. Brought to you by wildly prolific hack director Jim Wynorski, who has over a hundred directing credits, including some respectable trash, such as "Chopping Mall" and "Big Bad Mama II," but mostly less respectable trash (i.e. "The Witches of Breastwick" and "The Breastford Wives"). "Demolition High" is on the more respectable side since it has so many name actors, which besides Haim, Thicke, and Van Patten includes Gerrit Graham ("Used Cars" "Phantom of the Paradise") as the principal and familiar character actors George 'Buck' Flower ("Escape from New York" "They Live" "Maniac Cop") and Jeff Kober ("X-Files" "Tank Girl" "The First Power") as the lead terrorist. Dumb and unmemorable, but if you dug this film, there's a sequel "Demolition University" which I have not seen. Also, if Corey Feldman were on hand I would have added another 1/2 star. FUN FACT! "Demolition High" is referenced in Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia" by a character who is trying to get a part in a movie with Alan Thicke and Corey Haim.

The only thing worth watching this movie for is to see what a really bad movie is. The principal has a gun in his desk, a cop leaves his wounded partner in the middle of the street, and Corey Haim has a bowl cut. The only thing that would make this movie worse is if Corey Feldman was there also, but alas, I was left disappointed. I think they filmed this movie in the same school they used for Big Bully. I don't know whats worse, knowing that, or admitting to watching Big Bully. I did however learn that you can use a fire extinguisher to launch calligraphy pens like blow darts. I need to try that sometime. I give this movie a .053 out of 10, for the clever use of a fire extinguisher.

Demolition High I thought was a good movie. It was entertaining and fun. It was fun to watch how Lenny Slatter picked apart every bad guy trying to take over the school. I was shocked that I liked this movie. It's very rare for me to like these kind of movies. I give this movie *** out of ****

This movie which rehashes the tired plot of terrorists taking over a high school, has some of the worst special effects I've seen outside an Ed Wood feature. Alan Thicke ("Growing Pains" Dad) uses profanity, so that's kind of funny. Wait! This isn't a comedy...never mind.