Assassination of a High School President (2008)

How sad is this?

Good concept, poorly executed.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

If you haven't figured how this movie turns out in the first ten minutes, then you aren't paying attention. The obvious furtive glances by the perpetrators... c'mon now, do they really have to make it that easy? Maybe it just me but it seems that there is no challenge in most of the movies during the last twenty years of movie-making. Where is the new Crying Game? LolIf you want to see a much more interesting movie about high school life, then check out Faker$... far more entertaining and an even better soundtrack. It has no big names and a low budget and yet still comes across as very slick.

Review: This movie was definitely not what I was expecting. Judging by the poster, and the fact that they put Bruce Lewis in it, I thought that it was going to be actually about an assassination, but it ended up being about a boy trying to find out who nicked the answers for the test in a school. There was totally no reason for Bruce Willis to be in it and the storyline was pretty terrible. It just seemed like your usual American teenage college movie, which we have seen loads of times before, and it just seemed to drag. I was quite disappointed with the film and I can totally understand why it didn't make much noise, even if Bruce Willis was in it. Expected Better!Round-Up: With the murders happening in the schools, I can totally understand why they held this movie back because I don't think that it would have gone down well with the victims relatives. The director didn't really use Bruce Willis that much so it's obvious that he plastered him all over the poster, hoping to get people to see it, but judging by the money that it took, that didn't really work. The main character who is doing all of the investigating was a bit dull and I couldn't understand why he was left to solve the problem when an adult should have dealt with the matter.Budget: $11.5million (Bruce's Wage!) Worldwide Gross : $70,000 (Terrible!)I recommend this movie to people who like there typical American teenage movies about college life. 2/10

I see lots of recommendations for Brick here as an alternative but I disagree completely. The ambitions of the makers of Assassination of a High School President are so much smaller -- and thus more easily reached -- than those behind Brick that I find the comparison hollow.Brick takes itself so seriously, and even though I liked it, I couldn't bear watching it the second time, and I will never subject myself to that pleasure again. I wonder how I will feel about watching this film again but I know I'm open to the idea right now and I imagine I will find many more inside jokes than I noticed the first time around.When erstwhile hero and obvious patsy Bobby Funke tears the Freddy Bismarck page out of the yearbook with a cough, I thought about the same moment in Chinatown. Obviously so did the filmmakers, judging from the closing line of this film. Not to mention the scene of Paul Moore being dragged in a towel through the hallway yelling "I'm a patsy" -- just like Oswald! That's one problem with the narration -- it's clearly from the perspective of someone older than Funke. But once you give in to that conceit, you can enjoy the ride. And even though the denouement is telegraphed way before Funke reveals it I still enjoyed the position Funke finds himself in, as a catalyst for the plot and a lightning rod for bringing together the various cliques endemic to every high school, and every high school film.Good performances, too, where no one is trying to be Marlon Brando on a high school stage. I find that refreshing.

ASSASSINATION OF A HIGH SCHOOL PRESIDENT is a big step above most of the teen movies that focus on potty mouth dialogue and absurd situations just to get laughs. Writers Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski have come up with a script that is sometimes smart but ultimately full of holes in deciding where it wants to take the original premise of this high school movie. Director Brett Simon seems to sort of let the movie flow as it develops, preventing a tight telling of a story with potential. Bobby Funke (Reece Thompson, a promising new talent) is a nerdy newspaper reporter who is never able to finish a story. Student Body President/basketball star/ladies' man Paul Moore (Patrick Taylor) seems to have everything Bobby wants, including the attention of the school's most beautiful girl Francesca (Mischa Barton). As fortune would have it a crime happens - the SATs are stolen from the office of Principal Kirkpatrick (Bruce Willis playing Bruce Willis) and Booby is on the investigation and story, a story that points to Paul as the perpetrator. Bobby's nerdiness is transformed by his attention and by the affections of Francesca, and soon the school collapses under the cloud of the crime. It is how the 'crime' is inspected and resolved that ends the film. For Bobby Funke it is a matter of 'What price glory'. The cast is fresh and it is a pleasure to see some new faces with promise. Whether it is the director's or the sound mixer's fault, much of the dialogue is swallowed by the soundtrack, a problem thankfully solved by turning on the subtitles. This is a movie with promise from all involved and it will be interesting to see if it has an impact on teen flick quality. Grady Harp