Assassination of a High School President

2008 "Politics, popularity, paranoia, pharmaceuticals. Are you in?"
6.2| 1h33m| R| en| More Info
Released: 17 January 2008 Released
Producted By: Vertigo Entertainment
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

After the theft of copies of SAT exams from a principal's office, teenage reporter Bobby Funke sets out to unmask the thief. Bobby prints an article fingering Class President Paul Moore as the thief, shredding the youth's reputation. But as Bobby gets to know Paul's girlfriend, Francesca, he comes to realize he was wrong about Paul, so he sets out to unmask the true culprit.

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hall895 Assassination of a High School President is a mystery/comedy mishmash in which neither the mystery nor the comedy are really any good. The story unfolds in a high school, where Bobby Funke writes for the paper. Except he's never actually finished a story. But he gets his big break when he's assigned to do an article on student body president Paul Moore. Then the school principal discovers the completed SATs have been stolen from his office. Intrepid reporter Bobby Funke is on the case. He ties Paul Moore to the crime and writes an article incriminating him, pretty much ruining Paul's life. His sleuthing has earned Bobby newfound popularity amongst his classmates but he soon begins to have doubts. Was Paul really guilty? Or was he just a pawn in some sort of grand conspiracy? Bobby resumes sleuthing but unfortunately for the viewers nothing particularly interesting or funny happens while he does.Reece Thompson does a reasonably decent job with the role of Bobby but the script does him few favors, especially with the way it uses Bobby as a narrator who narrates seemingly every second of the movie. This grows tiresome very quickly, especially as much of the narration is meant to be funny but is not. Meanwhile the film's central mystery ends up not being very mysterious, you'll figure the whole thing out long before Bobby does. The film's obviousness drains much of the drama away. And the film really struggles for momentum. The plot, such as it is, moves forward at glacial pace. Some scenes are absolutely interminable. Humor falls flat. Really the only guy to draw any laughs is Bruce Willis playing the quite strange principal. Willis has his moments, injecting some life into the dull proceedings. Mischa Barton has a big role as the school's resident hot girl. The film tries to set her character up as some sort of femme fatale but neither the actress nor the character convinces. By the end rather than coming together the film pretty much unravels. You can see where the movie's going, you don't like where it's going, and you got very little entertainment out of it along the way. No way to spin this as anything other than a big disappointment.
Ahmed Dawod I was encouraged to watch this as it is classified as comedy here on IMDb. And I'm in love with Comedy movies. So I got the movie and watched it and for my disappointment I closed it from the half of the movie. I didn't find any comedy in the movie nor any action. I really regretted watching this movie as it was very boring, I could hardly complete it again after closing it twice in the middle. The story is not that cool, it is not hilarious as some members reviewed it and it is not so interesting. I recommend not wasting your time watching this movie and I don't know how it got more than 6 rating stars.
Desiree I liked the detective wanna be feel…both intriguing and amusing. The movie was unnecessarily perverted, but as a movie seeking teen viewers it was probably trying to get on their level and to appeal to them. Since teens are perverted this makes sense.That's really all I can say about this movie. I chuckled a few times and I liked the detective feel and narrations. Other than that I wasn't too interested in the story. It wasn't too captivating but then again…I'm not a teen. Maybe this film is just out of my age range.The acting was what was expected in this type of film. I was kind of surprised with the acting because two of the main actors are Bruce Willis and Mischa Barton…need I say more? The best actor to me was the lead role, Reece Thompson. Never heard of him before but he played the part well. I felt like Willis and Barton were trying to hard to fit their roles. I can't blame them for this though. If the film was better I think the acting would have been as well.
madbandit20002000 Either it's heaven or hell, the four years of high school define us, like it or not, preparing us for adulthood. Some of us are already "old" by that time and the lead hero, Bobby Funke, of the breezy, smart aleck school satire/mystery/coming-of-age opus, "Assassination Of a High School President", is definitely one of them.If he's not correcting the way people pronouncing his last name (the "e" is silent); noting his grade status, despite his baby face (sophomore); trying (and failing) to get his driver's license or downplaying the event of him being tied to a giant penis made out of snow (!), Funke (Reece Daniel Thompson of "Rocket Science") is trying to be a wunderkind newshound at the Catholic high school he attends, St. Donovan. Problem is he hasn't finished a piece. So, the paper's editor (spunky Melonie Diaz of "Raising Victor Vargas") assigns Funke to do a piece on class prez/basketball player Paul Moore (Patrick Taylor). Moore's basically a himbo, but also becomes a patsy when the SAT tests scores are stolen from the principal's office. Seeing himself akin to Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Funke rolls with the story and becomes a hero. He even gets the amorous respect of Moore's ex-girl, the popular Francesa Fachini (Mischa Barton of "The O.C."). However, things are more sinister, especially involving Moore's successor/Francesa's step-sib, handsome but sleazy Marlon Piazza (Luke Grimes of the TV drama, "Brothers and Sisters") and that puts Funke is a tight squeeze between high school popularity and journalistic integrity.An entry at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, "Assassination" is a dark, witty romp that plays on the inanities of high school by putting them in a mystery/pulp noir bag. Sure, "Brick" did it before, but "Assassination" has more humor, subtle and loud, thanks to first-time feature film helmer Brett Simon (did some music videos) and tyro scribes Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski (both were crew members on "South Park").A younger version of Tom Cruise but with likable geekiness, Thompson shines with an old man complex (he's probably the only student who knows who the aforementioned reporters are!). He wants to belong, but the environment's twisted and immature, despite it being a Catholic high school. Barton's pretty durable in the junior femme fatale role, not deserving the attacks from people who probably never went to an acting class.The surprise here's Bruce Willis (how the **** did he get in this and you know what he's been in, mother******) as the school's hard ass principal, war vet Jared T. Kirkpatrick, who has a zero-tolerance policy against gum chewing and reminisces about his Gulf War days. Like Adam Baldwin's John Casey of "Chuck", Kirkpatrick's a mentally jittery trigger who resents being in a mundane workplace, infested with social scofflaws.Some of said individuals help with Funke's investigation, including perverts Dutch Middleton (Joe Perrino) and Ricky Delacruz (Vincent Piazza, also of "Science" and "Boardwalk Empire") and jailbait stripper Sam Landis (Cameron Diaz-like Tanya Fischer of the new TV version of "The Defenders"). The faculty's nuts too. Josh Pais ("Teeth") is a Spanish-language teacher who has an inappropriate lust over the students. Nurse Platt (Kath Morris of "Cold Case") is no different but more hippie-like. Michael Rappaport ("Hitch", "Big Fan") is an overgrown teenager of a basketball coach who's actually a English teacher. The inmates have taken over, people.With cleverness and echoes from "Chinatown", "Rushmore", "The Usual Suspects" and "Assassin of Youth", "Assassination" is a nice nutty take on how high school can be both cruel and hysterical. It's a nice movie to watch on a Saturday night, if nothing's good on the TV.