High School

Most of the stoner comedy films that come along play pretty stupid and are an acquired taste. The latest High School looks to take the same template but add something a bit unique to it with more story. Is it possible to really be able to make a stoner film that stands out as more than just that or is it just a guise to attract a bigger audience.

High School follows a valedictorian who decides to take his first hit of pot only to find out that they are having random drug testing the same day. To try and nullify the test he teams up with the school's biggest stoner to attempt to get the entire school high. For the most part this is your typical stoner comedy, but thanks to the great cast and new twist with the story it manages to become something more and quite entertaining. Of course the story is highly unbelievable, but if you can set that aside and just have fun with it you are sure to have a great time. The entire cast does a great job, but two standouts come in the form of school faculty with Colin Hanks and Michael Chiklis. Hanks seems to just letting it all out to having a lot of fun not taking himself seriously and delivering some memorable moments. If Hanks is letting it all out, then Chiklis has split open and pours it out on the floor. His delivers a performance out of character that is both hilarious and a bit creepy. The obsessed principal he brings to life would easily become one of the more memorable film characters if this film got a wider release. Every aspect of his performance works and is bothersome on so many levels. The other stand out is Adrian Brody who is always good and seems to enjoy the stranger roles, but here just seems to lose his mind inside the character and become one with this psychotic drug dealer.

This movie is a lot of fun and reminiscent of the comedies of the 80's. Filled with a great cast, over the top story, and an original take on the stoner comedy High School will have you eager to light it up and smoke until the last puff.

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"Drugs, fornicating, a grown man singing about his feelings, it's time we win this war, expunge this school of all dope fiends." Henry Burke (Bush) has everything going for him. He has a scholarship to MIT and is in line to be his classes valedictorian. After an accident leads to detention he is brought back together with his old friend Travis (Marquette). They decide to take a break that night and unwind with a joint. After the school's representative in the national spelling bee loses it on TV the principal (Chiklis) institutes a mandatory drug test for everyone in the school. Fearing he will lose everything Henry and Travis come up with a plan. I am not really a fan of "stoner' comedy (I did like the Harold & Kumar movies) but the plot to this and the cast made it seem interesting to me. I was not disappointed. Adrien Brody is very funny as the man they steal from and Colin Hanks is good as a clueless asst. principle but Michael Chiklis steals the movie. Playing a clueless borderline pervert in charge of the school he is perhaps the funniest clueless principal since Ed Rooney. This is a very different style of stoner comedy and it is more like "Girl Next Door" then "Pineapple Express". This is nothing amazing but I enjoyed it and laughed quite a bit. Overall, a funny movie you can just put in and not think about, those are fun sometimes. I give it a B.

Have a bong is the main message of this extremely unstructured, but at the same time hilarious movie about how to protest against drug testing in high schools.

Well known faces of todays entertainment world makes this meshwork of teenage comedy work even today, loads of stuff i guess is very spontainously acted, however the script and fixed ideas about high school comedie genre have had some new takes to it, i just wonder why this title hasnt been recopied into todays world, with a better script and story that this.

But the grumpy old man gives a recommend.

Smoking makes most everything funny, and many will have a go-to selection of movies that pair especially well with pot. It's surprising, then, that movies about weed don't automatically fit into that category. If you've ever been sober in a room full of smokers you know that watching other people get stoned just ain't that funny, and it's even more difficult for a movie to impart a contact high.

Fortunately, High School straddles the divide between "stoner movie" and "movie to watch while stoned", because it's very, very funny. The plot is a lean, generic high school story - Henry (Matt Bush) is the straight-A valedictorian, tempted astray just before graduation by stoner and one-time friend Travis (Sean Marquette) after a chance accident lands them in detention. Henry tries pot for the first time, just as Principal Gordon (Michael Chiklis) is about to call for a school-wide drug test after a spelling bee incident embarrasses his school's good name. Henry and Travis plan to foil the drug test by getting the whole school high on drug savant Psycho Ed's (Adrian Brody) ultra-potent supply.

The setup is goofy but handled lightly and with a relatively straight face, which already distinguishes the movie from pure stoner material like How High or Cheech and Chong. The laughs come early and often, not relying too much on stoner tropes (although they're around if you want 'em) or character mugging, but on good, old-fashioned gags. The pace is a little uneven, perhaps because the script runs very tight around the speedy storyline, but the comedy is not.

Brody is given plenty of space to go wild; by the end his influence on the film is much bigger than his screen time. The same could be said on a lesser scale for Colin Hanks as vice-principal Brandon and Yeardley Smith as a teacher, who do typically fine jobs. Bush and Marquette, the two young leads, hold up their end of the bargain very well.

This is a movie that deserves to find wide distribution. If Pineapple Express, a perfectly entertaining movie in its own way, can find a decent audience, then for this to be left on the shelf is criminal. If you get the chance and you're even remotely curious, see it. Once again: it's very, very funny.

Seriously, this was an AWESOME and a really fun and funny movie! A great film, even right from the very second the movie studio company names came on screen. Funny throughout and it was a decent length, not like some of these new comedies/films that just make it past an hour, this makes it the full hog!

From a 24 yo guy (with a wicked sense of humour) that watched this un-stoned for the first time, well it was funny as f^ck! Can't wait to blaze up for the second watch!

As to all the hate/res, WHAT!? the hell man!? I see many haters hating, but not reviewing, as there's really nothing that bad you can say about this film. You could almost go as far to call this masterpiece a great 'family' movie... I mean is there not enough quotable jokes and analogies in here for you all? Was the fine acting, by all, BUT WOW was Adrien Brody SOOOOOOOO good, not enough? This movie made me search more with him in it, as well as a bunch of the other actors/crew!

In my opinion this will become a cult CLASSIC stoner film! But saying that, I understand these 'new-age-hipster' stoners think it's not cool to just have fun and relax, hence why they don't find movies like Smiley Face funny (if you haven't watched Smiley Face high, you haven't seen it). I know as a community of potheads we are changing the 'cheech-chong-hippie' image to something more 'suit-like' and 'get-it-legal' type image, but I beg of you all, let us not forget that weed shouldn't be taken so seriously as to not allow ourselves to unwind and laugh at pointless nonsensical feats of 'wisdom'... at least from time to time. I get the 'legal' stance, hell, I'm actively doing something to make it legal, but it doesn't mean we should wear these hats 24/7/365, that in itself couldn't be healthy. Just remember to unplug and laugh once in a while... :)

I highly recommend you all give it a chance, I'm sure there's so much going on in it, that by the end, you'll feel you could just rewind (if we all still did that) and start it from the beginning, all over again.

To cast and crew, WOW, thanks for making a rare 'modern' stoner classic. Adrien Brody, that performance deserved an Oscar! I'd love to see a sequel. But regardless, it's right up there, probably higher than some of the best of them - think How High type funny, quiet possibly funnier.

Hope this helps some of you!