Foreign Exchange

I recently watched Foreign Exchange (2008) on Tubi. The storyline revolves around four friends concluding high school and getting ready for college. They welcome foreign exchange students into their lives, thinking they'll be the ones imparting American fun, but soon discover they have something to learn themselves.

Directed by Danny Roth (Tag), the movie features Ryan Pinkston (Young Rock), Vanessa Lengies (Glee), Randy Wayne (Hellraiser: Judgement), Tania Raymonde (Lost), and Daniel Booko (21 & Over).

Noteworthy in this film are the entertaining cameos by Jennifer Coolidge (American Pie), Curtis Armstrong (Revenge of the Nerds), and Clint Howard (The Water Boy). Expect the typical topless scenes and crude one-liners fitting the genre. While the storyline leans towards cliché and the circumstances feel a bit cheesy, the cast's dynamic keeps the film engaging, resulting in a few smiles and chuckles.

In conclusion, Foreign Exchange falls short of being a good film, but it's not a complete waste of time either. I'd give it a 4/10 and suggest watching it once for the cameos and light-hearted humor.

There's no shortage of teen comedies out there to choose from, too many in fact. Despite the occasional gem, this genre is renowned for mass producing crap. Movies like 'Foreign Exchange' are exactly why teen movies in general have such a bad reputation. It plays up to each and every negative stereotype of the genre.

This is basically just a bad rip-off of 2007's 'Superbad'. Its attempts at humour are much the same, only 'Foreign Exchange' lacks the characters and wit to pull most of the jokes off. The failed humour combined with the predictably crap and wafer thin plot make 'Foreign Exchange' another cheap teen comedy to avoid.

"Foreign Exchange" (2008) is a high school comedy in the manner of 1999's "American Pie," but with a lower budget. I'm not a fan of "American Pie" or 2001's "Not Another Teen Movie" simply because they're too raunchy for my tastes; but that's just me. "Foreign Exchange" has quite a bit of raunch too and, in fact, begins with a scene of a teen masturbating in bed, but it's arguably not as bad as those other movies on this front.

While all these films exaggerate the teen years for comedic purposes, do they - generally speaking - reflect real life? The answer is yes, which is WHY they're funny. For instance, do many teen dudes masturbate in bed to a photo of a babe? Of course. Now, this isn't likely something you want to SEE, but the film's making light of those fun-but-awkward teen years. Furthermore, despite a brief scene of three girls flashing their breasts, the sleaze is all talk or, at best, implied. And isn't that also the way it is in high school, except for the neighborhood Fonz (i.e ultra-cool guy who gets all the babes)? Jay (Randy Wayne) fits this description in the film and, less so, Shantz (Daniel Booko). And then there's the hardaxx principal of the school. I had one of those - a former Marine who always rolled his short sleeves up to show off his muscles & Marine Corps Emblem tattoo - albeit in the movie it's a woman, Jennifer Coolidge, and she's genuinely funny. And then there's the stoner smart kid, Hashbrown (Miles Thompson) and quite a few pot-smoking scenes. Again, these things reflect the real-life high school years.

While "Foreign Exchange" is clearly low-budget it's also obvious that the filmmakers took care to create memorable characters with excellent casting. The film also does well on the female front with precious Vanessa Lengies as Robyn leading the way. I say "precious" because she's a hugely likable character that you care about, like Dave does (Ryan Pinkston), particularly as the story develops. Ashley Edner is also on hand as the beautiful Jez. Tania Raymonde as Anita, the Brazilian exchange student, is the main female protagonist, along with Robyn, but she's too thin to trip my trigger. I also like the way the shining Asian girl, Mia Ho (Jessika Van), ultimately finds companionship despite being made out to be discard-able. It's elements like this that reveal the movie's warmth below the raunchy garnish. The second half starts to mark time, however, so I can't give it a higher rating.

The film runs 85 minutes and was shot in Los Angeles.

GRADE: B-

This is the first teen movie where all the actors actually are and/or look like teens. If you are looking for a movie with "American Pie" humor, then continue searching, because this movie can not compete with "American Pie" humor. Don't get me wrong, I am not an "American Pie" fan but those movies are WAY more funny then this one.

This movie does not have any exaggerated scenes, everything you see could have happened for real. So don't expect any "Scary Movie" scenarios.

There are a few funny lines that I will never forget, like this one "Searching for a good girlfriend is like searching for a good used car, if the oil smells funny, there is something wrong with the vehicle." I gave this movie a 6 because I didn't laugh once. I smiled a couple of times but that's it. This is not the movie you want to buy, rent it, and only if you like high-school-movies.

I really enjoy this kind of comedies, but this one...wow! a total waste of time. This wants to be ATM (Another Teenage Movie) but instead it's a big ABTM (Another Bad Teenage Movie). Sometimes I had the feeling that I missed something in the movies's events because the script was pointless. The gags, the jokes are outdated and bad made. The actors are unconvincing. The characters are unconvincing. The 'bad teenage' guy is just bad (acting), the other want to be different characters but they just failed. After seeing this movie, you can ask yourself: What was it all about? Well, as in many other movies these days , the only best part ... is the end.