Kids in America

This movie is one of the most amazing I have seen in a long time. As a teenager myself I found this film to be very inspiring. The hot young cast depicts the public school journey through life perfectly and provides for hours of entertainment. Although somewhat predictable, the plot advances nicely and obtains a wonderful balance between realism, exaggeration, and plain old fun. The story is based on true events that happened to various teenagers in the US. When their principal starts over-reacting towards everything and giving explosions to things that could be solved with Saturday detentions, the kids decide to crack down. Without violence they "stick it to the man" and truly come together as a united front. I recommend this film to anyone who: has ever been a political activist, wants to relive their teenage years, is trying to find a new perspective, and/or just wants to watch a really great movie.

The film offers viewers an all too brief journey into politics and playfulness in a public school with an overbearing principal running for political office. She expels the male lead and Mr. D, voted teacher of the year for 5 years running and the one teacher who challenges his students to think, is fired and as expected the students rebel. A somewhat predictable story of teenage angst and a 2005-view of sexual orientation. A public school ruthless in its policing duties, the protagonist-principal has no desire or purpose other than maintaining the free range of her own narcotic narcissism, spewing exclusivity and dominance over the intellect, conscience, human potential of the students and teachers at her every turn. Unreceptive to interrogation, she cannot form or tolerate new ideas, try as she might to shape the thoughts of others, or tolerate independent thought. Yet there it is - a diamond glitters: Emily playing an ABC (American-born Chinese, third generation) and a scene stealer of the first order, predatory, yet sentimental and sexy. We recommend you see Emily, oops!, the film.

Based on real events, Kids In America is a teen comedy about a group of high school kids who band together to peacefully do something to kick their principal out of the school. It basically starts off when a student walks around promoting safe sex. The principal doesn't allow that, so she suspends that student. Then more students are into something that get the principal irritated, so she suspends all of them. Gregory Smith plays Holden. He finds himself expelled for criticizing school policy, and this how everything gets started when the group of students get involved. Nicole Ritchie is also in this film, but for like 10 minutes. She's on the poster and she's the second name you see on the poster. I wouldn't say this is her movie, and who cares about her.

I thought this would be a pretty decent teenage comedy. I was very wrong. The film stays where it's at and doesn't movie. It is awfully boring and most people won't be happy. I kept looking at the clock and time didn't movie. It felt like this movie was taking forever to end. It's also such a fake movie. Students running their school brainless. I didn't like this movie and I felt that it didn't have a good story. There are other high school comedies are decent and far better. Kids In America isn't one of them. 4/10

I just saw the film, and thought I'd post my review. I'm a little surprised by some of the comments, both the over-the-top enthusiastic reviews and the reviews blasting the film. I didn't think the film was hilarious or terrible. I thought the film was okay. I'd give it 2 1/2 stars out of 4, a marginal recommendation (6 out 10 on the IMDb scale). This is a story about a group of teenagers, lead by Holden (Gregory Smith), that lead a small rebellion against their vicious Principal (Julie Bowen), who has a penchant for suspending students and is running for Superintendent of Schools. I thought the story was pretty good and the acting was good. I did like the "movie love scenes" montage, but didn't think it had much of a point. One thing I didn't like were the student films and 2 talent shows, which looked like they were conceived and assembled by 3rd graders, not high schools kids, (or film writers). If these had been sharp and funny, they would've been entertaining, and would've fit the rest of the film. I'm not going to bother with any political angles, because films don't alter my political views. This is a simple story that could've been sharper, but is a nice, mild diversion.

I went to see an early screening of Kids in America also (probably the same one as "melinalives"). I agree with most of what she had to say. It was really enjoyable. It's pretty funny (especially one scene with same sex kissing where I couldn't hear a couple of lines because people around me were laughing so hard). It's definitely a comedy, but it also tackles some serious issues, which for me was the reason I enjoyed it. Yes, there are a couple of times you can see the cracks show because it's not a big budget movie, but the lower budget doesn't stand in it's way (and for me, it was refreshing to see a teen movie that was smart). There is an homage to old 80s movies like "Sixteen Candles" that's really cool. I think melinalives said it right when she commented that "it's heart is in the right place". The performances are really good (I don't know who the lead boy is, but he's charming). If I were to find one fault with the film, the first ten minutes or so are a little bumpy but then it finds it's groove and I really got into it. And the last kiss was awesome... I'll be looking for it in the Guiness Book of World Records.