Trailer Review: High School

Release Date: Fall 2010

Website: Official High School site

Starring: Adrien Brody, Michael Chiklis, Colin Hanks, Matt Bush, Michael Vartan, Sean Marquette

My Review: After watching this very bizarre (and short) early trailer for High School, the only thing I know for sure is this: Adrien Brody can be really friggin’ scary when he wants to be.

High School is apparently a comedy, though the teaser trailer makes it look and feel like a horror movie, with its quick scene cuts and Brody’s menacing voiceover (adult language ahoy, kids). But when it premiered at Sundance back in January, it was most decidedly a comedy. Plus it’s about weed, so it has to be a comedy. Everybody knows that Hollywood only bases dramas around the harder drugs.

After high school valedictorian Henry (Matt Bush, of the so annoying AT&T cell phone ads) gets high for the first time, the principal (Michael Chiklis) announces a no-tolerance policy and orders a school-wide drug test, where anyone who tests positive gets immediate expulsion—which would probably cause a problem or two with Henry’s college scholarship. So he comes up with a brilliant plan: Find a way to get the entire school high, so everyone fails the drug test. And to do this, he’s going to need to bring in the town’s preeminent pot dealer, a colorful character played by Brody who goes by the name “Psycho Ed.” This plan is bound to go off without a hitch. Or, like, not…man.

Would I Pay For It?: I’m more likely to rent it so I can enjoy it at home with an entire bag of Cool Ranch Doritos without anyone passing judgment on me.