Lie, Lie and Lie Some More (School For Scoundrels [2006] (DVD))

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Product:	School For Scoundrels [2006] (DVD)
Date:	08/03/07 (160 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: One or two funny moments

Disadvantages: Flat, uninspiring

Parking attendant Roger is one of life’s losers. For Roger, if it can go wrong, it will and if it can’t, it probably still will anyway. Stuck in a thankless job (he’s a parking attendant in New York City) he can’t seem to get anything right. Even his volunteer work at the local kids’ swimming pool is doomed, when none of the kids want him as their mentor anymore. Roger dotes on the girl next door (Amanda) but is unable to build up the courage to actually ask her out and must instead humiliate himself time and time again in front of her and her acidic flat mate.

But hope is at hand. When the manager of the swimming pool takes pity on Roger, he gives him the contact number for a mysterious tutor, known only as Dr P, who, for the sum of $5000 will enrol you in his confidence-building classes. Initially, Roger has some success, and even manages to take Amanda out on a date. It soon becomes clear, however, that Dr P has similar designs on the beautiful young woman and now, not only must Roger assert himself, but he must take on the man who taught him how to do it. The gloves are off…..

If you’ve seen the trailer for School for Scoundrels, I think I can almost certainly guarantee that you’ve seen all the funny bits. Or should that be funny bit? It was always debatable as to whether there was any justification for Todd Phillips’ remake of the 1960 original and anyone who has seen the finished version will conclude that this is just another pointless product of the relentless Hollywood remake machine.

The film had lots of potential. Its too leads could have worked extremely well. Now pretty much universally remembered for his lead in Bad Santa, Billy Bob Thornton has started to carve a career out of playing “bad guys” and it was a dead cert that Dr P would be a bad guy. Similarly, Jon Heder has done pretty well out of playing misfits and losers (he was in Napoleon Dynamite) and with teeth like that, who else could he play? The premise is sound too, the idea of a school for the weak and unwilling offering lots of potential to humiliate and ridicule before turning them around like the true underdog stories that everyone seems to love so much. So where did it all go wrong?

As a comedy, School for Scoundrels is disappointingly unfunny. The film is played largely in two acts, with the former offering the few guffaws that the whole piece has to offer. The audience’s introduction to Roger is quite funny, the sight of the poor guy desperately trying to pedal away from two gun-wielding hooligans guaranteed to raise a smile. Similarly, as we are introduced to Dr P and his methods there are some moments of mirth, particularly when the class is issued with pagers, from which a signal spurs them into a compulsory confrontation. But when Dr P starts to show his true colours, things start to drift into a hideously contrived case of “the enemy within” and Roger is once again at the mercy of everyone around him. By the time the film draws to its pained conclusion, you won’t be rooting for Roger. You’ll be wishing that someone would put him out of his misery. Director and writer Todd Phillips also shows his “frat house” comedy diploma (he worked previously on Road Trip, Old School and Starsky and Hutch) by toying with ideas that are at odds with the otherwise gently comical tone. A recurring suggestion that some of the students are raped by Lesher makes uncomfortable viewing. Would an audience laugh at a director who showed female cast members suffering in this way? So why do it with men?

Roger’s “transformation” drifts from being inexplicable to clumsy and back again. After one or two basic lessons, he somehow manages to get a backbone from somewhere, and yet we don’t really understand why. One minute Roger and classmates are the butt of everyone’s jokes and then the next they’re standing up for themselves and getting ahead. With only the briefest of interactions with Dr P and his assistant Lesher, this doesn’t really add up and seems rushed. Similarly, Dr P’s motivations for turning on Roger (he is apparently jealous of good students) never really felt right and the whole set of interactions between the two reminded me of Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler’s relationship in Anger Management (an equally unfunny film).

School for Scoundrels suffers from a profound identity crisis. With its 12A certificate, it seems intent on catching the half-term young teenaged market, but in doing so, sweetens things up rather too much to hold the attention of an adult audience. The most notable victim seems to be the script, with characters refraining from using swear words at a time when you just know they would. The whole production also suffers from a severe attack of dewy eyes, with Roger’s neighbour Amanda being just too nice for her own good. (An attempt to contrast this with a vile room mate backfires simply by portraying the two girls too extremely.) The over riding feeling from the characters seems to be disinterest in the proceedings. This is most notably seen from the viewpoint of Dr P, with Billy Ray Thornton using only a small amount of his reserve “wickedness” to bring the teacher to life. He’s smart and sassy but woefully underused and his ability to outwit Roger at every turn quickly becomes lazy and tiring. Heder’s turn as Roger is a little more inspiring, but only because he makes such a good dork and the chemistry between the two leads never seems to raise itself beyond “damp”. The famous tennis court scene (lifted almost directly from the original) just doesn’t seem to go anywhere at all. Michael Clarke Duncan is relatively amusing as Flesher (if only for his scenes in a blonde wig) but he’s more of a caricature than anything. Jacinda Barrett’s Amanda is sweet, but largely unmemorable for it.

School for Scoundrels is one of those films that couldn’t really decide where to pitch and therefore finds itself abandoned in No Man’s Land. Whilst not being completely unfunny, it certainly fails to raise more than a cursory smile and the overall silliness of the thing, coupled with weak performances and a sanitised script left me cold. The film has a clear moral message to make but the journey to get there is so flat that frankly you couldn’t care less by the time the final credits roll.

Not recommended

Summary: Comedy remake with a perplexing identity crisis