The movie was okay and had some funny scenes, but at best, it was just okay. I should have waited until it came on public TV.
Hollywood likes to openly proclaim that it embraces American values, but, if GENERAL EDUCATION is any indication, I'm not entirely certain Tinseltown even recognizes what sentiments average Americans embrace any longer. Granted, children are always going to have some `secrets' they hold out on their parents, but why glamorize it? Also, parents are always going to want something better for their children, but do they seriously force them to pursue dreams that'll more likely drive their kids into bankruptcy instead of having a life of personal fulfillment? I could go on, but methinks I don't want to spoil too much of this political claptrap in the first paragraph!
(Note: the following review will contain minor spoilers necessary for the discussion of characters and plot. If you're the kind of reader who prefers a review spoiler-free, then skip down to the last two paragraphs for my final words. However, if you're entirely accepting of some hints at things to come, then read on.)
Levi Collins (played by Chris Sheffield) appears to have a bright future. He's just "won" an athletic scholarship for tennis that should give him the `full ride' for tuition, but, as luck would have it, he has one problem: he hasn't yet successfully graduated from high school!
And therein lies the central problem of GENERAL EDUCATION: very little of what we're shown makes any sense. Only a few minutes after being granted a full scholarship by a sexually suggestive college recruiter (???), we're told Levi has to "compete" in a tournament and "win" in order to obtain it. Despite the fact that the script assures us that Levi is a tennis pro even descended from other tennis pros in his family history we're never shown him playing AT THE LEVEL of a tennis pro. In fact, we're only shown him repeatedly losing.
As the film unfolds, we learn that this is what accounts for "plot development" because Levi's father (and town mayor), Rich Collins (comedy veteran Larry Miller), is the only one who's pushing for his son to become a tennis star. Levi has no interest in it which is good since he can't play it or, rather, plays fairly poorly nor does he have any aspirations for college except for the fact that he knows he wants to attend Arizona State University, a choice apparently not to his father's liking.
Somehow, the audience is supposed to find all of this "funny."
To further complicate his family life, mom Gale (woefully miscast Janeane Garofalo) is taken to speaking in slight sarcasm while repeated swilling glasses of wine. At one point, Levi along with his older brother and younger sister find Mommie Dearest modestly incapacitated (think `drunk') while fully clothed in the bathtub late in the day after a grueling evening of drinking. Weakly, she waxes on about the troubles of raising children who will all grow up and leave home someday like she's the only parent who ever suffered from such a revelation.
And again, somehow, the audience is supposed to find all of this "funny."
However, back to Levi's antics. See, he's forced to lie to his parents about graduating from high school for which he's wistfully forgiven because it's all their fault, after all. In order to get his diploma, he'll suffer through a ten-day summer school program in Earth Sciences. Eighty percent of his grade for the class is the presentation of a class project, and, on a whim, Levi decides to convert his new car into `hybrid' that'll run on vegetable oil. The main problem with this `project' is that he never does any of the work! His brother also a failed tennis pro is suddenly revealed to have world class automotive skills and installs the already invented filter into the engine and ... voila! Passing grade! Plus, a happy ending!
And still, miraculously, writer/director Tom Morris expects audiences to find all this scathingly "funny."
There's so much wrong in the presentation of GENERAL EDUCATION that I won't trouble readers with the lion's share. What I truly found relevant was the fact that this appears to largely have been an independent production outside the standard Hollywood studio system but, under Morris's direction, it all kinda/sorta stinks like a failed Disney Channel Saturday Night Movie. None of the right sentiments are baked into the cake indeed, many of the jokes come off as half-cocked puns that even Disney stars quite possibly wouldn't be caught dead performing and, instead, we're treated up to the slightly veiled "it takes a village to get a kid to pass high school" formula. Before all is said and done, Dad's at fault, Mom's at fault, the school's at fault, the law's at fault, society's at fault, but rest assured the kids are alright.
Poorly conceived and woodenly acted, EDUCATION has a few moments of mirth that play out honestly. I can't help thinking that those were the accidents here and not what Morris and his cast and crew intended.
GENERAL EDUCATION is produced by Pelican House Productions. DVD distribution is being handled through Well Go USA Entertainment. As for the technical aspects, the sights and sounds are acceptable though nothing grand the sound mix was a bit off (I had to crank up the center speaker volume in order to hear the actors' dialogue) in the opening sequences, but it seemed to even out about twenty minutes in. The disc comes with a respectable assortment of bonus features an audio commentary, outtakes, making-of short, and the original theatrical trailer but I didn't invest any time with them as the overly maudlin quality of the picture turned me a bit sour in the conclusion.
SLIGHTLY RECOMMENDED but with some strong reservations. There's part of me that wants to recommend GENERAL EDUCATION to families because, in many respects, it's clearly intentioned as a light-hearted romp about a boy, his family, and his misadventures. Still, there's another part of me that sees the film for what it is: a slightly veiled attempt to discredit traditional American family values and supplant them with some Liberal / Progressive hogwash hoping no one will notice. As it is, there are far too many weird secondary subplots (many of which come get introduced and then brushed away from some genuinely bad comic writing) that spoil whatever good intentions the filmmakers may've been able to muster.
In the interests of fairness, I'm pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Well Go USA Entertainment provided me with a DVD screener of GENERAL EDUCATION for the expressed purposes of completing this review.
Buy General Education (2012) Now
Tom Morris has worked on quite a few films as a camera operator and has even written and directed several short films. But this time Morris joins writers Elliot Feld and Jaz Kalkat as co-writer and director of the coming-of-age comedy "General Education".
The film would star veterans Larry Miller ("Pretty Woman", "10 Things I Hate About You", "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang"), Janeane Garofalo ("24″, "Mystery Men", "Ratatouille") and feature Chris Sheffield ("Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon", "The Rookie"), Maiara Walsh ("Switched at Birth", "Cory in the House", "Desperate Housewives", "Mean Girls 2″), Skylan Brooks ("Seven Pounds", "Our Family Wedding") and Elaine Hendrix ("The Parent Trap", "90210″, "Superstar").
VIDEO:
"General Education" is presented in 1080p High Definition (2:34:1). Outdoor scenes are quite vibrant showcasing wonderful contrast while indoor scenes were good. For the most part, "General Education" does look very good on Blu-ray!
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
"General Education" is presented in English 5.1 DTS-HD MA. The soundtrack is primarily dialogue and music driven. But there is probably a few scenes where the surround channels and LFE are used (scenes with fireworks). But for the most part, dialogue and music are crystal clear and primarily front and center channel driven.
SPECIAL FEATURES
"General Education" comes with the following special features:
Audio Commentary Featuring audio commentary by Tom Morris and the co-writers and producers of the film: Jaz Kalkat, Kevin Liang, Elliot Feld and sound editor Tim Hoogenakker.
Outtakes (5:39) Outtakes from "General Education".
Making Of Featuring interviews with the cast about their characters and the crew about the making of "General Education".
Trailer (1:44) The theatrical trailer for "General Education".
JUDGMENT CALL:
"High Hopes" is a coming-of-age film that doesn't really break any new ground. There were a few times in which I thought the film would go one way or try to be clever with its storyline but instead, the film turned out to be quite banal and average.
It's a standard story about a guy who wants to graduate but his parents are pushing him to be something that he doesn't want to be.
Part of the problem of the film is that the writers play things too safe. How is Levi really being affected? I suppose the film could have been dark and had him becoming a drug addict, alcoholic or something terrible but I suppose that we have seen those type of films before.
But there are a few things that left me scratching my head of "why?". Why do some of the characters look like they came from a bad '80s film? Why is a 13-year-old Charles (portrayed by Skylan Brooks) walking around with no shoes on? Yes, he outgrew them but what is up having a young Black male in a film and his family can't purchase him shoes? Why have him shoeless to begin with? It makes no sense. You find out that Brian Collins has quit his professional tennis career because he finds out that his girlfriend is dating a big Black man. And why did the man have to hit Brian with a baseball bat? Makes no sense!
The nervous breakdown suffered by Gale Collins (by Janeane Garofalo), didn't seem natural. She's a mother who cares for her children, who are growing older and avoiding her. But not once do we see her going off about how she feels. She's just found laying in the bathtub. There was no build-up for that moment. Which would have been quite fascinating as it was probably the most reserved performance by Garofalo since her appearance on "24″.
You bring in Levi's friends which could have been fascinating in a "Superbad" kind of way as Levi's friend including Andy (portrayed by Harvey Guillen) was funny. But the film steers clear of them and focuses on Levi's relationship with the girl he likes and learning about how his brother wants to choose his own destiny. But you have Levi hanging out with Shady Nick (portrayed by Seth Cassell) who seems like a jock of the '80s and is a 20-year-old in high school. Once again, it doesn't make any sense and it would have been better suited to play the strengths of the comedic sides of Andy who was much more fascinating and funny that the character of Shady Nick.
But as much as I question the film for its use of characters and overall storyline, for what it is, you get a safe coming-of-age film. I just wish that the writers took a bit more risk because the storyline for "General Education" could have been a bit more serious or even darker. And even if it was too be all about the comedy, the film could have utilized characters much better.
But with that being said, for filmmaker and writer Tom Morris, a jack-of-all trades when it comes to his involvement with films and co-writers Elliot Feld and Jaz Kalkat, this is a good start and definitely a film that these guys received great experience and I'm sure we'll see something much better from them next time because of this film.
Overall, "General Education" is a teen comedy/coming-of-age film that plays it a bit too safe with its characters and its overall plot. It's an average film, not terrible, nor great but you can't help but feel that it could have been much better
Read Best Reviews of General Education (2012) Here
I don't laugh out loud much at films, but this one had me busting up in a couple of places. Good clean fun with just a bit of edge, If you like coming of age movies, this is a win!
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GREAT MOVIE! A great coming of age/family story with lots of quircky comedy! The cast and crew did a great job putting this together!
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I Loved Valentine's Day and so when I heard about this one I was very excited to go see it and it has some of my favorite actresses and actors in it. Of course people will call this film predictable and cheesy just like all the romantic built movies, but honestly there is not one romantic type of movie that is not predictable. Of course you know what's going to happen at the end since it's called a romantic movie. I personally loved this movie, it had a lot of laughs and a couple parts where I got teary eyed. The movie has well put together characters and a very good plot. The ending just like Valentine's Day where it brought characters throughout the movie together some predictable and some were the complete opposite of predictable. I Love this movie and recommend it to anyone who likes romantic comedies or likes Valentine's Day. Who cares what the critics say they are wrong most of the time. Go to enjoy the movie, not to critique it.
