So I am not going to lie, when I saw that Mill Creek Entertainment was releasing “High School High” on Blu-ray, I got very excited. I fondly remember the movie from years ago and I even owned a copy of the film on DVD (which was just a Full Frame presentation). Thankfully this film is presented in Widescreen format and in 1080p (thank you Mill Creek Entertainment).
The film focuses on Richard Clark as he leaves his job at an established academy to teach at an inner city high school. The school is rundown and the students lack direction. Richard is ever the idealist and wants to improve the school and the education the students receive. Richard’s class, particularly a student named Griff, start to believe in him and more importantly, themselves. Richard also has the support of fellow school staff member Victoria. Richard and Victoria even begin a romantic relationship while the school begins to get cleaned up. Richard is met with resistance in the form of high school gang leader Paco however. Paco (and the mysterious individual he is working for) will stop at nothing to stop Richard.
Does this plot sound familiar? Well, don’t panic if it does. Countless movies in the 90s dealt with teachers trying to better an urban area school and this film is a parody on that craze. Through satire (and sometimes just stupid humor) “High School High” provides plenty of laughs and chuckles to make it worth a watch. “High School High” was one of those films that got panned by critics even though I thought the film had a lot of laugh out loud moments. I am honestly surprised it never got to be a cult classic at the very least. Parody mastermind David Zucker co-wrote and produced this film. Zucker decided to parody films like “Stand and Deliver”, “Dangerous Minds”, and my personal favorite “The Substitute” with this. It works just as well as his other parody films in my opinion.
“Saturday Night Live” veteran Jon Lovitz plays Richard Clark in the film and it proves to be one of his best roles outside of SNL. Tia Carrere plays his love interest and is a natural in such comedic roles after “Wayne’s World”. A pre “8 Mile” Mekhi Phifer plays Griff while a pre “Half Baked” Guillermo Diaz plays Paco.
“High School High” isn’t a comedic masterpiece but it never pretends to be either. Instead, it’s goal is solely to make the audience laugh and leave you feeling happy after leaving the theater/living room. In my book, “High School High” joins movies like “Strange Wilderness” and “Starsky and Hutch” that should have been seen by more people but got buried by critics. It’s definitely worth a watch if you need a laugh and help get your mind off of your troubles.
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