The idea behind Barely Lethal is that the government has some sort of top secret program that adopts orphan girls and trains them to be ninja-like assassins. Sounds a bit like Spy Kids and at least the first Spy Kids film was good. So, I went into watching this film with relatively high expectations--especially when it's billed as a comedy. Plus the boss is played by Samuel L. Jackson...and everyone loves Samuel L. Jackson, right?
There is trouble brewing at this secret agency. Megan (Hailee Steinfeld) is a great little killer but secretly she harbors a dream to be a normal teenage girl. When it looks like she's been killed on a mission she decides to use this opportunity to disappear and reinvent herself as a high school student so that she can experience a normal life. So why did the film utterly fail for me? Well, the film appeared to be a comedy but almost never made me laugh. A HUGE infusion of humor really would have helped. It was at times just too serious. Additionally, the film much like any teen film--with the same clichés (such as the nerdy but nice guy she meets but ignores until she finally realizes he's dreamy...just like I saw in The Duff and several other teen films) and same inappropriate content (such as the hilarious notion of calling one of the characters 'Rape-it Ralph'--which is about as funny as jokes about pedophilia or cancer). The bottom line is that the film started off with nice credits, an interesting premise and then it just went nowhere for me. In the film's defense, I am not exactly the target audience but shouldn't any audience deserve a bit better than a by the numbers teen film that promises to be different but really, down deep, isn't? Plus...Rape-it Ralph?!?!
If you care, the film was just released on DVD this week to Netflix but I think you could do so much better, such as the great OLD teen movie Better Off Dead...now THAT is a funny and original teen movie!
There is trouble brewing at this secret agency. Megan (Hailee Steinfeld) is a great little killer but secretly she harbors a dream to be a normal teenage girl. When it looks like she's been killed on a mission she decides to use this opportunity to disappear and reinvent herself as a high school student so that she can experience a normal life. So why did the film utterly fail for me? Well, the film appeared to be a comedy but almost never made me laugh. A HUGE infusion of humor really would have helped. It was at times just too serious. Additionally, the film much like any teen film--with the same clichés (such as the nerdy but nice guy she meets but ignores until she finally realizes he's dreamy...just like I saw in The Duff and several other teen films) and same inappropriate content (such as the hilarious notion of calling one of the characters 'Rape-it Ralph'--which is about as funny as jokes about pedophilia or cancer). The bottom line is that the film started off with nice credits, an interesting premise and then it just went nowhere for me. In the film's defense, I am not exactly the target audience but shouldn't any audience deserve a bit better than a by the numbers teen film that promises to be different but really, down deep, isn't? Plus...Rape-it Ralph?!?!
If you care, the film was just released on DVD this week to Netflix but I think you could do so much better, such as the great OLD teen movie Better Off Dead...now THAT is a funny and original teen movie!