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Assassination of a High School President DVD Review

By Prairie Miller

Superbad meets grossout noir, in the pulp potboiler Catholic School coed comedy, Assassination Of A High School President. And while channeling Chinatown's sinister sleaze by way of South Park co-writers Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski, the movie boasts tangy teen dirty talk so thick, you could cut it with a well sharpened pencil. Which by the way, somebody does more than once.

Rocket Science's Reece Thompson is Bobby Funke in Assassination Of A High School President, a nerdy, Watergate-obsessed aspiring ace reporter on the school newspaper and fresh meat on the extracurricular bully circuit at St. Donovan's Catholic School. After utterly depraved when not deviant post-traumatized war vet from 'The Storm' Principal Kirpatrick (Bruce Willis) discovers the SAT exams swiped from his office, Funke gets on the case to collar the culprit, while hopefully also spiffing up his loser image and snatching the reigning hottie femme fatale Francesca Fachini (The O.C.'s Mischa Barton).

Though a little slow on the action required by the noir genre's suspense-propelled intrique, Assassination Of A High School President substantially compensates with its splendidly nasty wit and stylishly murky deep throat attitude. Including a grade school vamp kid snitch willing to spill the beans in exchange for stuffed unicorns; a jolly classroom priest fond of showering with the jocks in the locker room while singing in Spanish; matriculated prescription druglords; and chain gum-chewing gumshoes into the down and dirty of classmates with criminal intent, when not in pornographic detention room lockdown. In any case, after reorientation at Assassination Of A High School President, playing hookey will never seem quite the same.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Rated R
3 stars

DVD Features: Extended and Alternate Scenes with Optional Commentary; Alternate Opening Sequences with Optional Commentary; Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary; Theatrical Trailer.

Prairie Miller is a multimedia journalist online, in print and on radio. Contact her through NewsBlaze.