Movie Review: Senior Skip Day (2008)

Somewhere along this rocky road we call life, I’ve taken on the cause for the older generation who refuse to relinquish their youth. My qualifications for this post? I faithfully watch Saturday morning cartoons (even though they’re nothing like those from the old days), I act like a buffoon at the most inopportune moments (much to the chagrin of my wife) and I incessantly watch mindless teen angst movies. And so, once again, I’ve been called into action. My goal: to review Senior Skip Day.

Now anyone who has read one of my movie reviews on these types of films should already know what I need to see for me to give it a thumbs up review. For those that don’t know here they are, in no particular order (more may be added at any time):

• The movie shouldn’t take itself seriously. The best movies in this genre are all about fun and little about an intelligent script
• Humor must be found in unexpected places. I have a warped sense of humor, so the more unexpected, gross and immature the jokes are, the happier a man I am
• Mounds and mounds of unnecessary nudity. The more twenty-somethings running around naked for no apparent reason the better (I’ll even accept thirty and forty-somethings)

Generally, the latest crop of party movies fall short of hitting these marks (Cougar Club being one), but now and again a movie like American Pie Presents: Beta House comes along to quench my thirst. Sadly, Senior Skip Day falls into the former category, meeting only one of my criteria.

The one aspect it makes the grade on is it doesn’t take itself seriously. Writer Evan Wasserstrom took an age old rite of passage and scrawled what amounted to a movie on a napkin. School nerd Adam (Gary Lundy) accidently gives up the location for the senior skip day party to the overlord principal Frankfurt Dickwalder (Larry Miller). Realizing his error, he offers up his house as a new location, but for it to be a success he needs to get his senior class to his house (including his love interest Cara (Kayla Ewell)) and stop the principal from crashing it. The first part is easy and rather blah, the second part turns out to be much harder and funnier.

It’s funny because Larry Miller plays the ultimate dickhead. It’s no surprise either really, he’s been playing mean, snide power brokers and principals for years now (just take a look at his resume and count for yourself). Here he gets mixed up with the mob, gets ramped up on coke, beats the shit out of a student or two, and crashes a black funeral all for the sake of trying to stop the party. And he does it all with his impeccable comic timing and wise-ass attitude.

As for the rest of the cast of characters, I wasn’t impressed. Tara Reid (what happened to you darling?), Lea Thompson and Norm MacDonald all have a combined screen time that amounts to roughly ten minutes. Don’t be fooled by the trailers. Relative newcomer Gary Lundy (he apparently had a role in Bickford Shmeckler’s Cool Ideas) does an alright job at being the teachers-pet-but-trying-to-be-cool-kid but he doesn’t even come close to the character he’s obviously emulating: Ferris Bueller. Kayla Ewell is cute – but cute doesn’t cut it – I need skin and sadly the amount I saw could be counted on one hand (and one of them, if I recall correctly, was in a wet t-shirt).

So once again it is safe to say I’ve saved the day for horny adolescents (in mind and body) from certain and utter disappointment. Senior Skip Day can and should be skipped.

About: General Disdain Real name: Craig Catena. Pen name used because as I've grown older I tend to dislike more and more things. What I still like to this day are: Long walks on the beach, women named Candice and dinner by candle light. Oh yeah, I drink carbonated beverages far too much too.

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