Review of Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (2016) by Alex L — 07 Oct 2016

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life.

Initial Reaction: Trust me, it can get worse.

Main Characters.

Rafe: He's an ordinary kid played by Griffin Gluck.

Principal Dwight: He's the principal at a school. He's Played by Andrew Daily.

Plot Summary.

Rafe is having trouble fitting into school. He's been expelled from almost every school he's gone to, and he has one last grade school that will accept him.

But on the first day, he finds out that school has a large number of rules he has to obey - a strict dress code, no outside food, no touching the trophy case, and so on.

It's one rule - no drawing during class or assembly meetings - that really gets him in trouble. He gets sent to the principal's office where Dwight destroys his precious doodle pad (where they got a pail full of acid is something even they don't know.).

So, he decides to get revenge for that by sabotaging the school - and breaking all the rules one by one. But he has to do it anomalously.

First, he puts up a whole lot of Post-It notes all over the principal's office, then he turns the trophy case into an aquarium.

But he has to be careful no to get caught - or else he may end up going to a military style school.

SCORING.

Main Characters.

I try to like Rafe. I really do. But it would've been so much better if he talked with someone else - a teacher or his parent - about how badly these rules are having an effect on him.

And I find the principal just a bit flat. It's clear he wants to teach to a test, but it seems that he does this as a convenience to the plot. SCORE: 4.

Supporting Cast.

There's one teacher who tries to encourage the students to use creativity - which I like. But the rest of the cast is bland, boring, or even worse, annoying just to make conflict so we have a better story. SCORE: 4.

Plot.

This film wouldn't be so bad if I could not take it seriously. Rafe pulls off a few almost impossible pranks at his new school overnight, and the action is way over the top. However, halfway through the film, they talk about Rafe's younger brother - and they want us to take this film very seriously. I can't do that. SCORE: 2.

Originality.

This has your average film that takes place in a school, but I wonder if they were going for a drama or a comedy. The storylines just don't mesh well together. SCORE: 2.

Violence Factor.

If a student can sneak into a school on at least three different occasions and plant pranks, then I'm afraid a student can sneak into that school and plant something more sinister - like a bomb. Remember: the students in that school have ugly issues that can cause them to do really bad things. SCORE: 2.

Other Moral Issues.

This film should've been about a bunch of kids who stand up to overbearing authority, and how teaching to the test is a bad idea. However, the pranks and the serious matter muddle that message. And let us remember the old proverb: Two wrongs do not make a right. It would've been better if the students - or their parents - file a complaint with the education board first. SCORE: 2.

Final Score (out of 60): 16 % Score: 20%.

This film should've just been a silly, over the top tale about kids pulling pranks to stop an overbearing principal. But it all goes wrong when they want us to take it seriously.