The temptation to make lots of marijuana-derived jokes would be a lot stronger if “High School,” an alleged stoner comedy, were actually funny.
But this half-baked enterprise, which has been sitting on the shelf for the two years since it played the festival circuit, isn’t just stale – it’s lazy. Director John Stalberg Jr. and writers Eric Linthorst and Stephen Susco operate under the misconception that all stoned behavior is funny and rarely take the gag further than that.
While that may be true if you’re sitting around getting high with your pals and goofing on each other, you’re probably only funny to each other. To everyone else, you’re just a meandering, slow-talking bore.
No doubt the creative minds behind “High School” thought they were on to something with their one-line premise. Well, OK, it’s one line if you string it out and punctuate it correctly:
High-school valedictorian smokes pot for the first time during the last week of school, then discovers that the principal will do drug screenings the next day and expel anyone who fails, thus endangering smart kid’s scholarship to MIT.
Wait, there’s more:
This review continues on my website.