junkySTL

Well, not the ENTIRE reason to see this film... but she was certainly the highlight for me. Why? Frankly because I didn't even know who she was until I saw this film (sad, considering her other work is extremely interesting).

At any rate, the plot is simple; high school students pressured by life decisions plan to steal the S.A.T. (which has various definitions assigned to it throughout the movie). It becomes an elaborate scheme and many people get caught up in it.

Including shinning Erika Christensen (from SWIMFAN and TRAFFIC).

There's the obvious collection of somewhat stereotypical kids (a stoner, a brain, two slackers- one more academically charged than the audience would like to believe).

At any rate, this movie plays well.

I actually loved it!

I supposed it was a bit more personal for me since my PSAT and S.A.T. were HELL!!!!!! And I sunk my teeth depe into a movie that blasted these types of standardized tests and the implications they hold (sexism, racism, placism, all of which are true of standardized tests and the current education system in general, sad to me... and me on the brink of being an English professor).

At any rate, the bottom line is this: You HAVE to admire a movie where one of the "heroes" of the film is a stoner who's so ultra-smart among his peers that he excells past all of them while convincing everyone around him that he's borderline stupid. Only Mtv could produce such a character, or such a film.

I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

And watch Johansson... She's gonna be a star if her smoldering performance here is any indication! She plays the best goth/metal/rebellious/finger-to-the-system/badgirl I've seen in film today...

I was first introduced to this film in a British Cinema class I took at the College of Santa Fe and it's haunted me ever since! Despite what the box claims, Orson Wells has a small part in the and of the film... but the real star is Alan Badel. The first segment, "In the Picture," deals with a museum attendant who's paintings have a real, and sinister, life of their own. The second segment, "You Killed Elizabeth," is not supernatural, and probably the film's dullest installment, but has some good character to it. The final segment, which shows Badel at his absolute evilest, "Lord Mountdrago," has Wells and Badel as political adversaries, and Wells' murderous dreams become real. Of all the small obscure murder mystery / horror gems to go unnoticed from Britain this is certainly the one I wish would receive more attention. It is chilling (my favorite segment remains "In the Picture"), well acted, and brilliantly scripted. Rent it if you find it at your video store! Watch it if it (miraculously) appears on television! Or simply go out and buy it (you won't regret it!). If you want to see the BEST horror anthology film ever, look no further than THREE CASES OF MURDER.