AGW Entertainment reporter Lynn B. saw ...

THE PERFECT SCORE

When you are a Senior in High school, if you live in the U.S., you may have to take the dreaded SAT scholastic aptitude test that often determines which college will admit you based on the test’s verbal and math skill scores. I join the multitudes who think this test sux bigtime! Okay, I’m a writer. I always aced everything in high school and college that had anything to do with writing. Math on the other hand.. forget it. I scored big.. almost the top in verbal on my SAT’s and sucked in math. This brought my overall score down and I didn’t get into the college at the top of my fave list. Hey, I wasn’t going out for rocket scientist. I was aiming at writing t.v., screenplays and entertainment journalism! (Got my career anyway so there!)

The kids in The Perfect Score think the SAT suxs too. So much so that they decide to steal the answers so they can ace the test and go be the best that they can be!

Six high school seniors, from varying class ranks and social cliques, decide they won’t let this one test determine their future potential. They’ll break into the Educational Testing Service offices and steal the answer key! The gang consists of prim Anna (Erika Christensen), rebel Francesca (Scarlett Johansson), basketball hero Desmond (NBA star Darius Miles), stoner Roy (Leonardo Nam), popular Kyle (Chris Evans) and semi-geeky Matty (Bryan Greenberg). After a lot of well-planned Mission Impossible-style break in action, do they succeed or fail? And, who hooks up with who?

Okay, I love that this movie reveals that these tests are useless in determining a person’s true potential but, the characters are complete clichés. For example.. the John Hughes ‘80’s classic The Breakfast Club (go rent it!) has the same characters!! Anna equals Molly Ringwald, Francesca is Ally Sheedy, Roy is Judd Nelson, and Desmond is Emilio Estevez. Kyle and Mattie are combos of Emilio and geeky Anthony Michael Hall.

Most of the actors are just walking through their roles. Poor Darius Miles just can’t act at all and should stick to basketball. The two lead guys Kyle and Mattie are barely developed. You don’t feel any connection to any of the characters. The stand-out exception is Roy played with geeky, stoner glee by cute Asian dude Leo Nam. This guy is hilarious! He’s got great comic timing and his character is brilliant in his own way. He just doesn’t believe in school, thus also breaking the “all Asian kids are super serious students” stereotype. The whole movie is almost worth it just to listen to his wild lingo and watch his antics.

Scarlett Johansson is now mega-hot in films and this one was shot before her recent triumphs in Girl with a Pearl Earring and Lost in Translation. She does a good job as a rebel rich kid but doesn’t have much to work with. There are some logic problems throughout the film and I also don’t really buy the ending although it reinforces a moral choice.

Your call. Leo Nam makes the film funny enough to enjoy, Scarlett and Erika are cool and some of the guys are pretty cute.

Rated: PG-13

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