Average Rating: 4.7/10
Reviews Counted: 38
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 27
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 4.8/10
Critic Reviews: 13
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 8
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 96,433
In this drama, a school teacher discovers that it takes more than the ABCs to get through to a class of "uneducatable" kids. When Lou Anne Johnson (Michelle Pfeiffer), a nine-year veteran of the Marine Corps with a degree in education, begins a new job at an inner-city school in California, the principal (George Dzundza) warns her that her class will be the "rejects from Hell" -- kids with severe social problems and no interest in education. While at first her African-American and Latino
Aug 11, 1995 Wide
Jul 13, 1999
All Critics (41) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (11) | Rotten (27) | DVD (3)
Pfeiffer gives a funny, scrappy performance that makes you feel a committed teacher's fire to make a difference.
The tale screenwriter Ronald Bass came up with, and the way director John N. Smith tells it, is stereotypical, predictable and simplified to the point of meaninglessness.
The movie pretends to show poor black kids being bribed into literacy by Dylan and candy bars, but actually it is the crossover white audience that is being bribed with mind-candy in the form of safe words by the two Dylans.
Stay home and watch Welcome Back Kotter. It's more enlightening.
A no-frills, single-minded drama driven by Pfeiffer's totally committed performance.
Pfieffer is absurdly miscast: Sly Stallone would make a more plausible Mr. Chips than the frail, squeaky actress does a nine-year veteran of the Marine Corps.
None of it rings the slightest bit true; all of it insults the intelligence.
So whitebread I want to call everyone involved 'Urkle'.
Horrible. A waste. How was this ever a hit?
I like movies like these, although its not as good as films like freedom writers, it is an entertaining enough movie. Its not the most inspirational drama that gives you the wow factor at the end of the movie but it is funny and keeps you interested. I absolutely love the soundtrack to this movie its amazing.
October 28, 2007
Super Reviewer
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