The Perfect Score

The Perfect Score is one of those movies you would expect to be incredibly stupid. The premise is absurd: kids try to steal the answers to the SAT. However, I found myself enjoying this movie. The characters are likable and have good reason to cross the line to cheat on the SAT. I especially enjoy Erika Christenson (who I didn't recognize from her work in Traffic and Swimfam) as the girl who needs a high SAT score to get into Brown University. This movie shows the pressure that high school students have on standardized testing in general. Their grades may be good, but without a good score on this one test makes the difference in what college they can get into. I was not a fan of standardized tests in high school and I do not like them now. I think that dislike of these tests adds to the appeal the movie. I give this movie a 6/10. It is worth 90 minutes of your time.

Those expecting cinematic events like the Godfather or Saving Private Ryan.

Stop reading this.

Those expecting crude teen humor films featuring underage drinking and nudity, such as Road Trip and Varsity Blues.

Stop reading this.

But those of you looking for a teen movie full of the typical adolescent hinjinx and cheap laughs.

Start reading this.

The Perfect Score won't light up the box office or have everyone waiting day after day for its release onto DVD.

Instead, it's a movie targeted towards middle schoolers, high schoolers, and most college students.

Typically good kids under rough circumstances, most of us who have taken the SATs remember the pain in the arse they were. Throw in two very attractive, and talented acting-capable, girls...two guys and a jock...and an Asian pothead quick with one liners...

and you got a pretty solid movie.

While the Perfect Score won't give you everything you want, I feel that it will make you just happy enough that you caught the showing.

So if you're looking for a movie to sit back and relax too...and perhaps vicariously wonder if you could steal the answers to the SAT...check out the movie.

I enjoyed it, and chances are if you kept on reading this post.

You will too.

Imagine, you failed your SAT test and your environment is pushing you so hard that you HAVE to pass for the retest. But, you're just not good enough. Or that the university you would like to go to requires a score that is way-beyond your capabilities.

What would you do? And if you decide to cheat, would you keep it a secret or would you share it with some people? In this movie, the secret leaks out and more people get involved in the plan: to steal the answers.

The diversity of characters in this movie often leads to funny situations or strange conversations.

The movie itself is a little predictable, but it stays nice. I would say, 7 out of 10.

I think that this film was missing many things in making it good. It was your average teen film with nothing special. Plot was kind of like that of the movie Cheaters. The movie was borderline R rated. The only pluses were the stoned guy the whole film and Scarlett who is quickly becoming one of my favorite actresses. If you must see this film go into it with no thought and you may actually like it. Or you could just go see it for the only two good things mentioned above.

"The Perfect Score" aspires to be like a John Hughes film (Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, etc.) but falls short...way short. Telling of six High School seniors who, faced with having to take the SAT's, decide to steal the answers to the test's questions only to have epiphanies go off like flash bulbs as they just sort of realize that crime doesn't pay and careers don't either when one has cheat their way to the top. The result is an awkward and stiff dramedy fusion of cliches and stereotypes sorely lacking in the creativity, imagination, and inspiration which teen flick maestro Hughes brought to his hit films. Passable and forgettable stuff only a teen could love. Adults might want to check out the much more provocative TV flick "Cheaters 2000" instead. (C)