Kids In America (2005)

[WillRiker]

Movie Title: Kids In America

Director: Josh Stolberg

Rated: Australia:M / USA:PG-13 (Ontario)

Genre: Drama/Comedy

Runtime: 91 Minutes

Viewed: In my chair on the TV screen

Trailer:

MTW presents yet another YouTube - Kids In America Trailer video

Synopsis: A diverse group of high school students band together to peacefully stick it to their overbearing principal.

Opinion: Here's a movie that kinda crept up on me and caught me by surprise. I "obtained" a copy of it as it wasn't released in the UK as far as i could find, and when I got it I was under the impression that it was another high school teen comedy in the mould of the "American Pie" style. I was wrong.

Despite the fact that the trailer also portrays it as a comedy, it's really more of a drama with comedic elements and is based on real incidents that happened in American high Schools. It's very similar in story line to Christian Slater's "Pump Up The Volume" in that a "crooked" High School Principal is weeding out kids that she thinks are "trouble makers" or "bad elements", and the kids decide to rebel and fight back.

As I said, it kind of snuck up on me as I hadn't even heard of this movie and I guess it's only really gained notoriety because of Nicole Richie being in it, although she wasn't really required to act as she was playing a blonde airhead...can you say typecasting??

It did also have a few named stars it in such as Elizabeth Perkins, Rosanna Arquette, Adam Arkin & George Wendt, but most of the parts were by actors that were either not really known or who had appeared in things such as "Small Soldiers" (one of my favourite movies...sad I know) or Malcolm in the Middle, and they did an excellent job.

As the credits role they actually have 2 or 3 of the kids whose stories were told in the movie.

All in all I got something different than I was expecting, but I really did enjoy this movie.

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