Review of Dangerous Minds (1995) by Joseph K — 09 Aug 2008

I haven't seen Dangerous Minds for ages, apart from bits on TV on holiday, which I wasn't really paying attention to at the time. When I found it on DVD for cheap, I bought it.

As soon as I put this DVD on, and it started up, I remembered all the characters instantly. I even remembered what happened in the movie.

But really, there's nothing new here that hasn't been done a thousand times before, and better. The story is pretty generic, and is almost a direct copy of what happens in Sister Act 2. Even the cast look pretty similar. A former marine comes in to teach the 'bad' kids, who have managed to be unteachable up until now. She teaches them karate (without actually touching them of course), teaches them a few choice phrases about choosing or wanting to die, and boom, she's the best teacher ever.

The kids are pretty stereotypical too, there's the choice bad guy, with the girlfriend who wants to protect him, the other bad guy who wants to be bad, but has a good family behind him and all the other stereotypes you can think of. Any fans of Hackers will recognise Renoly Santiago from that. What's shocking is that Wade Dominguez, who played Emilio (the bad guy), actually died at the age of 32 in 1998, from respiratory failure. I couldn't believe it when I read that.

The only real lasting impression that Dangerous Minds will leave you with is the song that was everywhere when it was out "Gangster's Paradise". Otherwise, it's pretty forgettable.