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The Perfect Score

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The Perfect Score (2004)

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Reviews Counted:29

Fresh:5

Rotten:24

Average Rating:3.5/10

Consensus: Neither funny nor suspenseful, this heist / teen flick also fails to explore its potentially socially relevant premise.

Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for language, sexual content and some drug references

Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins

Genre: Comedies

Theatrical Release:Jan 30, 2004 Wide

Box Office: $10,279,192

Synopsis: High school senior Kyle (Chris Evans) gets a major shock when he discovers his SAT score isn't good enough to get him into college as an architecture major. A perfectionist, Kyle's resilient nature... High school senior Kyle (Chris Evans) gets a major shock when he discovers his SAT score isn't good enough to get him into college as an architecture major. A perfectionist, Kyle's resilient nature is sparked when he embroils his best friend Matty (Bryan Greenberg) in a madcap scheme to steal the SATs. The boys soon realize the enormity of the task ahead of them, and recruit an eclectic bunch of willing accomplices to help. Among their group are Francesca (Scarlett Johansson), an anti-authoritarian hipster whose father happens to work in the building where the elusive test scores are kept; Anna (Erica Christensen), an overachiever who flunked the test due to nerves; Desmond (Darius Miles), the school's star basketball player who wants to get into a good college; and Ray (Leonardo Nam), a hapless stoner who is only included in the group after overhearing Kyle and Matty planning the robbery in the school bathroom. Determined not to fail, the students overcome their different backgrounds and manage to work together by planning an SAT heist in meticulous detail. As the harebrained scheme becomes a reality, moments of bonding, hilarity, and a few lessons in life ensue, as well as a sly critique of the tests along race and gender lines. [More]

Starring: Erika Christensen, Chris Evans, Bryan Greenberg, Scarlett Johansson

Starring: Erika Christensen, Chris Evans, Bryan Greenberg, Scarlett Johansson, Darius Miles, Leonardo Nam, Tyra Ferrell, Fulvio Cecere, Matthew Lillard, Lorena Gale, Lynda Boyd, Michael Ryan, Robert Clarke, Alfred E. Humphreys

Director: Brian Robbins

Director: Brian Robbins
Screenwriter: Mark Schwahn, Marc Hyman, Jon Zack
Producer: Roger Birnbaum, Jonathan Glickman, Brian Robbins, Mike Tollin
Composer: John Murphy
Studio: Paramount Pictures

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Release:

Jul 14, 2009

[DVD Details]
 
 
  • It's a film about 6 teenagers from diverse backgrounds - among them the school's star basketball player - who conspire to break into a SAT testing center to steal the answers in hope of acing their exam. They quickly realize that the answer to their problems and the key to their happiness do not lie in achieving a perfect score.
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    Reviews for The Perfect Score

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    1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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    Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
    01/02/09
    Brian Lowry
    Brian Lowry
    Variety
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Next time, director Robbins and his screenwriters should spend a few hours inside a real high school rather than re-hashing stock stereotypes from bad '80s movies.

    Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
    01/31/04
    James Berardinelli
    James Berardinelli
    ReelViews
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Lively and fun in places, but overall it has a listless, tepid feel.

    Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
    01/31/04
    Stephanie Zacharek
    Stephanie Zacharek
    Salon.com
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Talks a pretty good game, but in the end the numbers just don't add up to much.

    Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
    01/30/04
    Michael O'Sullivan
    Michael O'Sullivan
    Washington Post
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    A bizarre mismatch of The Breakfast Club and Mission: Impossible.

    Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
    01/30/04
    Desson Thomson
    Desson Thomson
    Washington Post
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Is there not something just plain wrong with a movie about cheating on exams that's less fun than taking one?

    Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
    01/30/04
    Geoff Pevere
    Geoff Pevere
    Toronto Star
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    A dull film with unsympathetic characters brought together by a gimmicky premise that's handled with no imagination and a pristine fraudulence of emotion.

    Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
    01/30/04
    Mick LaSalle
    Mick LaSalle
    San Francisco Chronicle
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    It's not funny, though it tries to be, and it has nothing serious to say about the politics of the SATs, though it purports to.

    Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
    01/30/04
    Jack Mathews
    Jack Mathews
    New York Daily News
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    When the most entertaining thing about a film is the printed press material that mimics the look of the test, you know you're in trouble.

    Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
    01/30/04
    Kenneth Turan
    Kenneth Turan
    Los Angeles Times
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Simply uses the test as a reason to assemble six teen stereotypes.

    Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | comment Comment
    01/30/04
    John Monaghan
    John Monaghan
    Detroit Free Press
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Fails to gain admission into the elite group of inspired teen comedies.

    Full Review Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News | comment Comment
    01/30/04
    Robert Denerstein
    Robert Denerstein
    Denver Rocky Mountain News
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Scribes Marc Hyman, Mark Schwahn and Jon Zack have crafted a snappy romp about right, wrong, and the teasing in-between.

    Full Review Source: Denver Post | comment Comment
    01/30/04
    Lisa Kennedy
    Lisa Kennedy
    Denver Post
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    It's too palatable. It maintains a tone of light seriousness, and it depends on the caper for too much of its entertainment value.

    Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment 1 Comment
    01/30/04
    Roger Ebert
    Roger Ebert
    Chicago Sun-Times
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Its rebel yell takes a back seat to the inevitabilities of the squeaky plot.

    Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
    01/30/04
    Wesley Morris
    Wesley Morris
    Boston Globe
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Even among the ranks of the diminutive, this one's got nothing to boast about.

    Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
    01/30/04
    Rick Groen
    Rick Groen
    Globe and Mail
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Strains to be a hip splice of Ocean's Eleven and The Breakfast Club, but plays more like a never-ending civics lecture, trying to mask its pervasive lameness in visual zip and savvy reference points.

    Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger | comment Comment
    01/29/04
    Lisa Rose
    Lisa Rose
    Newark Star-Ledger
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    This is the sort of movie that panders to teens ... while it ineffectually lectures them about the need to bear down on the books.

    Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
    01/29/04
    Lou Lumenick
    Lou Lumenick
    New York Post
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Six New Jersey teenagers conspire to steal the answers to the SAT in this thin, pleasant teenage heist comedy.

    Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
    01/29/04
    A.O. Scott
    A.O. Scott
    New York Times
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Almost nothing about this MTV production, a heist movie about standardized testing, works.

    Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
    01/29/04
    Eric Harrison
    Eric Harrison
    Houston Chronicle
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    The story is flimsy, and when the dialogue touches on controversial issues regarding the SAT and its fairness, the slacker tone turns abruptly melodramatic.

    Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
    01/29/04
    Luke Sader
    Luke Sader
    Hollywood Reporter
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic
     
     
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