While there is nothing contemptible about this film, it could have been so much better. The basic premise is the struggles in an old urban high school full out out of control kids and teachers who stopped caring. There is the obligatory clueless principal, the maverick teacher, the neurotic teacher, the boring lazy timeserving teacher, the troubled wise cracking kid who is so clever, a knocked up blonde etc etc.
The plot is the school is being sued because one dummy who passed through the system is illiterate and wants to blame someone besides himself. There is an idealistic young pretty lawyer, Lisa Hammond, who is also an ex student, played by Jo Beth Williams. She goes back to get depositions, not to enrich her worthless client, but to change the system by exposing the problems of the school where blatantly unqualified students are passed through just to get rid of them.
So she finds her old English teacher, the hip but jaded idealist, Alex Jurel, and serves him a summons by following him into the men's room. Nolte was Jurel and as always, did his part well. Then throw in Ralph Macchio as the troubled trouble maker but good kid Eddie Pilikian, while still looking like the Italian jd he always reminded me of. He has an even more messed up sidekick Danny, played by Crispin Glover, in a pre "River's Edge" dementia state.
Okay the plot chugs along pretty well some comedy, some problems exposed, some capers, as the staff of the school, aided by the school's cynical lawyer, try to stonewall the case. Lisa tries to goad old idealistic Jurel into changing stuff while putting some moves on him. Blah blah blah. But the steady stream of soap opera cases, like the messed up Danny getting shot dead in the halls by the police and in about a minute he is already forgotten.
In short, the movie tried but was only partly successful. For an 80s movie, it was good but not that good. Also, I wanted to hear at least one person say, "It was more that loser's fault that he never got an education than the schools."
The plot is the school is being sued because one dummy who passed through the system is illiterate and wants to blame someone besides himself. There is an idealistic young pretty lawyer, Lisa Hammond, who is also an ex student, played by Jo Beth Williams. She goes back to get depositions, not to enrich her worthless client, but to change the system by exposing the problems of the school where blatantly unqualified students are passed through just to get rid of them.
So she finds her old English teacher, the hip but jaded idealist, Alex Jurel, and serves him a summons by following him into the men's room. Nolte was Jurel and as always, did his part well. Then throw in Ralph Macchio as the troubled trouble maker but good kid Eddie Pilikian, while still looking like the Italian jd he always reminded me of. He has an even more messed up sidekick Danny, played by Crispin Glover, in a pre "River's Edge" dementia state.
Okay the plot chugs along pretty well some comedy, some problems exposed, some capers, as the staff of the school, aided by the school's cynical lawyer, try to stonewall the case. Lisa tries to goad old idealistic Jurel into changing stuff while putting some moves on him. Blah blah blah. But the steady stream of soap opera cases, like the messed up Danny getting shot dead in the halls by the police and in about a minute he is already forgotten.
In short, the movie tried but was only partly successful. For an 80s movie, it was good but not that good. Also, I wanted to hear at least one person say, "It was more that loser's fault that he never got an education than the schools."