School of Life is Filled With Lessons ***

edwagreen

The movie boils down to the new teaching methods exemplified by the hip teacher as portrayed by Ryan Reynolds. We see the traditional methods played by David Paymer. While Paymer hopes to continue in the tradition of his recently deceased great teacher father, his desire to be teacher of the year is impeded when he finds himself competing with Reynolds.

The film is flawed by the easy going way the classrooms are run in the school. If they had major disciplinary problems, they couldn't be this casual or lax. I don't want to hear from people that when you adopt the new hip ways by experimentation, your problems in the room shall disappear. That's only in Hollywood fairy tale stories.

The film is a good one in that it wants people to be themselves and to strive for excellence.

Many of the people in the film are cliché ridden. My favorite was the typical spinster math teacher who knew how to get curse words out.

score 8/10

edwagreen 23 May 2012

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2615942/