Killing Mr. Griffin

The book is much better. It is more realistic and the charcters' motivations are better presented. Their back stories are absent in the film. In real life, any student would have broken down much earlier.

The acting, especially Tori's, is not good at all. However, the end was much more dramatic and exciting than in the book.

This movie really did surprise me, I expected it to be horrible. I watched it with my sister because she has a star crush on Mario Lopez and honestly expected to be bored out of my mind. Yet again, a t.v. movie managed to prove me wrong. It's not that I thought it was wonderful, it wasn't. It was predictable, stereotypical, and the writing was occasionally weak. But in general the actors managed to capture the emotional soul of the character, which in my opinion will make any movie worth watching. While it's not the best movie created by any stretch, it keeps your attention without requiring in depth thought, and if you just feel like sitting back and watching a movie for a good time, this is a good one to watch.

Mr. Griffin (Jay Thomas) is a bitter high-school teacher, who pushes his students to the limit and is hated by most of them. When he humiliates the popular student Mark Kinney (Scott Bairstow) is his class, Mark convinces his friends to play a prank on Mr. Griffin. The group manipulates Susan McConnell (Amy Jo Johnson), using her to attract the teacher to the parking area after hours. They kidnap, blindfold and take him to an abandoned boat house nearby a lake, and trying to frighten him, they leave him tied on a chair alone in the desert place without his heart pills. Mr. Griffin dies and when his body is found, the group panics.

"Killing Mr. Griffin" is a very reasonable teen thriller. It is not a masterpiece or an awful movie, as written in many reviews, but a slightly above average story with a good moral lesson in the end. I believe the intention of the writer is to show the consequences of the steps each one of us decide to follow in life, no matter who the person is. The character of Mr. Griffin is very nasty and arrogant, being impossible to feel any sympathy for him. The Brazilian title is ridiculous, and the VHS released by "Europa Filmes" shows a picture of the body of Mr. Griffin in a grave with the students around, inducing the viewer that the genre of this movie would be horror. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Terror Ronda a Escola" ("The Terror Rounds the School")

I must say that this was one of the finest made for TV movies I have ever seen. It was a part of the post Scream teen movie boom, but this one was actually good (unlike I've Been Waiting For You" and "Teaching Mrs. Tingle") The acting was surprisingly good by the cast of up and comers (it was great to see Michelle Williams pre Dawson's Creek) the script was intense and the direction made us feel we were part of the scheme. If you liked "I Know What You Did Last Summer" (both movies were based on the books by Lois Duncan) you'll get a kick out of this one too. It's not a slasher story, but a story about covering up secrets and how they can ruin your life. Amy Jo Johnson is terrific in the lead, and Scott Bairstow is creepy and sinister. This was a good movie. Too good to be a TV movie. It should have at least got a limited theatrical release!

This was still an ok movie but the book was a lot better.I'm one of those who hate to read a book but in this case I suggest read the book. The movie was still good but when they say based on they mean just the main idea.They left out some pretty good scenes from the book out!They added people and left out others. The acting in this movie was great but the movie could have been better.