Henry Burke (Matt Bush) is the soon to be Valedictorian when, after reigniting his friendship with his old friend and resident stoner Breaux (Sean Marquette), he decides to take his first hit of the Mary J. The next day, the principal, played hilariously perverse by Michael Chiklis, decides to institute a drug test for all students in an effort to rid the school of drugs and druggies. Paranoid about losing his scholarship and valedictorian status, Henry teams up with Breaux to beat the system in an ingenious way, by getting the entire school stoned so that no one passes the drug test. The only problem is finding enough weed to accomplish this daunting task, and that’s where drug dealer Psycho Ed (Adrien Brody) comes in.
Directed and co-written by John Stalberg Jr., High School is the perfect addition to any stoner comedy collection. I love the premise of the movie and, despite the mediocre acting by the leads, it runs fairly smoothly and delivers consistent and ridiculous laughs that’ll get anyone with a soft spot for marijuana chuckling along. Even though the leads provide some good laughs, it’s all about the supporting characters with this film and watching both adults and teenagers interact with each other while they’re really stoned propels the laughs forward. It gets even better when the principal acts like a the real dick he is and the salutatorian tries to blackmail Henry and Breaux.
Though, by far, the best part of the movie was Adrien Brody. With a deep, grungy voice reminiscent of his role in Predators, Brody and his crazy eyes easily steal the show as the insane Rastafarian drug dealer, Psycho Ed, out for vengeance and in search of his stolen jar of high grade kief.
My only question with the movie was how the kids had so much time to run around the school even though it was the last day and classes were still in session with finals being taken. There were times when Henry would take his tests, but when Breaux and him would roam the hall it felt like they were doing it for 5 or 10 minutes. Now I don’t know what school gives that much time in between classes but I wish I went there.
As for my only annoyance with the film, I was bothered by the forced girl/love plot that was shoved into the movie in three different spots throughout the picture. It was completely unnecessary and took away from the glo
rious stoner aspect of the film with the writers trying to find a way to create one too many happy endings.
This movie was made for stoners and the humor is exactly in line with the way stoner’s act. That being said non-smokers with an open mind can enjoy this one too. I myself was fond of the film’s chronic touches, like when someone would say “what” to someone else and then everyone would repeat “what,” “fuck” and “huh” back and forth for about a minute. It was a running joke that lasted the entire movie and was always funny when it happened. If you’ve ever been around someone whose been stoned then you’ll know what I mean.
In the end, High School is a solid contribution to the slowly expanding stoner comedy genre. If you’re looking for something random to enjoy one night I’d suggest giving this one a look-see if you want to laugh and need to kill some time.
The disc:
The movie looks pretty good on blu-ray though it isn’t the type of film you need to see in that format. As for the special features, the disc doesn’t have much in the way of extra content. It comes with audio commentary from executive producer/writer/director John Stalberg Jr., a trailer and 11 deleted scenes that total 12 minutes and 21 seconds. I will say, there are some pretty funny scenes that were deleted from the movie but I can understand why the extra footage was cut.
Movie rating: It won’t give you the munchies but you’ll be giggling from start to finish (6.3/10)
Disc rating: (5/10)
High School is now available on Blu-ray and DVD from Anchor Bay Films
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