Politically incorrect humor has its place, but you probably shouldn’t even attempt it in this day in age unless you’re a certifiable comic genius. The makers of After School Special clearly are not. In fact, it seems like they purposefully tried to see how fast they could piss off every minority group known to man. In the first ten minutes, there are homophobic, racist, and sexist jokes (on top of the prevalent dick and pedophile jokes), and none of it is remotely funny. At all times it feels like a comedian who keeps doubling down on the “I’m an equal opportunity offender” defense, with each joke being more tasteless than the last.
Two high school losers are on the brink of not graduating. Their principal decides to give them one last chance and signs them up for a “mentoring” program. However, their “mentor” winds up being a sleazy bar owner who just wants to use them as cheap labor. When they learn one of their classmates have been kidnapped by a secret society of perverts, they set out to rescue her.
If you can’t tell from that “plot” description, After School Special is all over the place. To call it a “plot” is an insult to storytelling in general. It’s more like a couple of half-baked subplots indifferently slapped together until the filmmakers reached something (close) to a feature length running time. The jump from an Eyes Wide Shut-style Illuminati party to a training montage of an ex-secret agent grandma whipping the boys into shape is especially head-scratching.
The leads are pretty bad, but the “name” cast do what they can. We have porn star Kayden Kross as a sexy teacher, Jason London as the boys’ clueless dad, and Nick Swardson as a stoner janitor. Eric Roberts (doing a broad gay characterization) and Ron Jeremy play themselves, and also happen to be members of the depraved secret society. In case you’re wondering, this is exactly what you would expect from a movie in which Eric Roberts and Ron Jeremy play themselves.
This was especially disappointing given that it was directed by Jared Cohn, who did Bikini Spring Break, Jailbait, and Locked Up, all films that look like they belong in the Criterion Collection compared to this. Although I enjoyed all those movies, he should be sentenced to a lifetime of detention for directing After School Special.
No comments:
Post a Comment