Rebel High

I'm going to give this a 6 out of 10 mainly because after about 13 years without seeing this movie, it's never been far out of mind and i've been spouting some of the forgotten (or just never-heard)quotes in this movie to the disdain of my peers, who have no idea what i'm talking about. Back in high school, an old pal of mine recommended this, and we instantly took to dropping lines from the film into daily conversation. While it may be B-Grade schlock, how often can you watch trash like this and get a thorough education on the free enterprise system ("The man who takes the risk is the man who makes the profit" or something along those lines issuing from some fat dudes mouth), the declaration that a particular teacher is "Thick" (you have to hear the guy say..."Mat, that math teacher be thick!"), and the awesome Mr. Relic busting in on the lavish restroom run by the school's premier 'gang' of malcontents only to announce he could smoke a pound of their $hit without batting an eye. I'd highly recommend The Wizard of Speed and Time, Haggard, and Street Trash for anyone who finds this sort of drivel entertaining. I certainly do.

While I enjoy a good film that creates a fantasy world and takes it as seriously as it expects the audience to take it, such as the recent adaptations of The Lord Of The Rings, my primary interest lies in films which are so bad they're good. Rebel High is at once one of the best and worst films I have ever seen, and it's damned good fun at the same time.

Set in a fictional high school where the punk students have taken over the place, no opportunity for a laugh at the film's expense is passed over. Every situation in this comedy is so ridiculous that it makes one wonder exactly what the screenwriters were smoking. Even the grafitti in the cafeteria delivers a good punchline. If you've ever wanted to make a bow and arrow in woodwork class, then you don't want to miss this film.

But what makes the film more fun than anything Hollywood has churned out in the past thirty years is that it doesn't take itself so damned seriously. Compare Rebel High with a recent Hollywood comedy like In And Out or High Fidelity, and the laughs difference is so astronomical as to be ridiculous. Rebel High is quite obviously a film where the cast and crew don't give a toss about Oscar nominations, they just want to entertain the viewer (and possibly themselves).

It's also quite funny to reflect on how there are shades of Rebel High in every secondary educational institution in Western society. The students are only there because they have to be, the teachers are stressed out to the max, and the rest of the staff seem to view it in terms like the prison that every school really is. Even sixteen years after it was released, I am still eagerly awaiting its release on an optical medium like DVD-Video. This is comedy the way it should be.