This movie essentially revolves around a rather unambitious high school senior named "J. J. Manners" (Michael J. Fox) who has recently become attracted to another student named "Beth Franklin" (Nancy McKeon). The problem is that Beth is currently dating the most popular boy in the school by the name of "Beau Middleton" (Anthony Edwards). To that effect, not only is Beau the most popular guy in high school, but he is also the richest one there along with being the high school quarterback. Throw in the fact that Beau is quite aware of J. J.'s attraction to Beth and the situation becomes that much more difficult for J. J. as well. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that, even though there were a number of well-known actors involved in this film, I don't believe their talents were utilized as well as they could have been. For example, I liked the fact that both Bob Denver (as "Milton Feld") and Dawn Wells ("Miss Lorilee Lee") appeared in this movie. Yet, rather than taking advantage of this fact, the director (Rod Amateau) failed to give them any worthwhile screen-time to make any real difference. Throw in a rather mundane plot and the final result was rather mediocre at best. Be that as it may, while this was certainly not a bad movie by any means, I don't think it was nearly as good as it should have been and I have rated it accordingly. Average.
Review of High School U.S.A.
