HIGH SchoolMovie Reviews


No
Avg. Critic Score: 31 out of 100 Generally unfavorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
17 Iffy for 17+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 60
    Arizona Republic |

    It's exactly what it appears to be: a funny-enough stoner comedy with a likable cast. Read full review

  • 50
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    High School is a pun. Get it? This is one of those stoner comedies that may be funny if you're high - but if not, not. Read full review

  • 40
    New York Daily News | Elizabeth Weitzman

    The nearly unrecognizable Chiklis almost single-handedly saves the day. Read full review

  • 40
    Movieline |

    High School rushes through the parts it should savor and then pads out its runtime with filler elsewhere - and, less forgivably, it doesn't make getting high look like fun. Read full review

  • 40
    Time Out New York | Keith Uhlich

    This is mostly all reefer, no madness. Read full review

  • 38
    New York Post |

    A lame stoner comedy. Read full review

  • 38
    USA Today | Scott Bowles

    Filmmakers must have been tripping pretty badly when they made High School, a flub that's about as lucid as a stoner at a spelling bee. Read full review

  • 25
    San Francisco Chronicle | Amy Biancolli

    The screenplay is so cognitively impaired that the filmmakers might have been better off hacking up "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," "Dazed and Confused" and "Dude, Where's My Car?" and then sticking together random bits with masking tape. At least that would have made some sense. Read full review

  • 25
    Slant Magazine | Nick Schager

    As sure as marijuana gets you high, you can count on weed-themed comedies cropping up every few years, each hoping to become a stoner-classic staple--a fate to which High School falls far short of achieving. Read full review

  • 20
    Austin Chronicle | Marjorie Baumgarten

    Instead of putting the high in high school, this film is the kind of drug movie that gives pot smokers a bad name. Read full review

View more reviews for HIGH School on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 17+ Laid-back comedy centers on heavy teen drug use.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that High School is a drug comedy about teen pot smokers who try to get their entire school stoned in order to thwart a mandatory drug test. There are no positive messages or role models here, and both language and sexual innuendo are extremely strong throughout. There's also some full-frontal female nudity. A scary drug dealer often threatens violence but never delivers. Several teens smoke pot regularly, and most of the characters in the movie are stoned at some point. The movie is aimed at teens, and it has an alluring subversive quality, but parents should be ready to put it in perspective and discuss real-life consequences.
  • Families can talk about the movie's messages about drugs and drug use. Do you think the movie is an accurate depiction of social attitudes about marijuana? Why or why not? Does it address any of the consequences of drug use? As a comedy, is it expected to?
  • Are there any stereotypes in this movie among the high schoolers? What about the adults?
  • Who do you think this movie is intended to appeal to? Does it succeed?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: High School's "lesson" is that teens can get away with anything if they learn to "loosen up" -- which apparently entails smoking pot and breaking all kinds of rules. In the movie's only positive vein, childhood friends who have drifted apart become close again.
  • rolemodels true0 Positive role models: The "good guys" in this movie sell and smoke pot, and the "bad guys" are uptight teetotalers.
What to watch for
  • violence false1 Violence: Many threats, but no actual violence. Even in a scary encounter with a drug dealer, no one is actually touched. Sexual harassment between a high school principal and his secretary is quickly thwarted.
  • sex false5 Sexy stuff: Two high school girls are seen fully naked, both from the front and from behind. A character attempts to seduce an older woman and fails. Almost constant sexual language and innuendo, of all different types.
  • language false5 Language: Nearly constant swearing includes countless uses of "f--k" and "s--t," as well as "p---y," "c--t," "c--k," "a--hole," "ass," "balls," "penis," "bitch," "hell," and "goddamn," as well as "Jesus f--ing Christ."
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false5 Drinking, drugs and smoking: The behavior in High School isn't meant to be taken seriously, but teen characters regularly experiment with drugs. There's almost constant marijuana smoking, and an entire school's worth of teens unknowingly eats pot brownies.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

HIGH School Featured Trailers + Video Clips

Watch All Videos