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Movies / On DVD / The Perfect Score
The Perfect Score

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The Perfect Score (2004)

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Reviews Counted:104

Fresh:17

Rotten:87

Average Rating:3.7/10

Consensus: Neither funny nor suspenseful, this heist / teen flick also fails to explore its potentially socially relevant premise.

Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins

Genre: Comedies

Synopsis: High school senior Kyle (Chris Evans) gets a major shock when he discovers his SAT score isn't good enough to get him into college as an architecture major. A perfectionist, Kyle's resilient nature... High school senior Kyle (Chris Evans) gets a major shock when he discovers his SAT score isn't good enough to get him into college as an architecture major. A perfectionist, Kyle's resilient nature is sparked when he embroils his best friend Matty (Bryan Greenberg) in a madcap scheme to steal the SATs. The boys soon realize the enormity of the task ahead of them, and recruit an eclectic bunch of willing accomplices to help. Among their group are Francesca (Scarlett Johansson), an anti-authoritarian hipster whose father happens to work in the building where the elusive test scores are kept; Anna (Erica Christensen), an overachiever who flunked the test due to nerves; Desmond (Darius Miles), the school's star basketball player who wants to get into a good college; and Ray (Leonardo Nam), a hapless stoner who is only included in the group after overhearing Kyle and Matty planning the robbery in the school bathroom. Determined not to fail, the students overcome their different backgrounds and manage to work together by planning an SAT heist in meticulous detail. As the harebrained scheme becomes a reality, moments of bonding, hilarity, and a few lessons in life ensue, as well as a sly critique of the tests along race and gender lines. [More]

Starring: Erika Christensen, Chris Evans, Bryan Greenberg, Scarlett Johansson

Starring: Erika Christensen, Chris Evans, Bryan Greenberg, Scarlett Johansson, Darius Miles, Leonardo Nam, Tyra Ferrell, Fulvio Cecere, Matthew Lillard, Lorena Gale, Lynda Boyd, Michael Ryan, Robert Clarke, Alfred E. Humphreys

Director: Brian Robbins

Director: Brian Robbins
Screenwriter: Mark Schwahn, Marc Hyman, Jon Zack
Producer: Roger Birnbaum, Jonathan Glickman, Brian Robbins, Mike Tollin
Composer: John Murphy
Studio: Paramount Pictures

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Reviews for The Perfect Score

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41 - 60 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 >> >|
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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
01/31/04
Boston Phoenix
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
01/31/04
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Rates an L for laziness, as none of the characters is developed beyond the broadest archetype, nor are their motives probed beyond the flimsiest of excuses -- nor is the heist itself more than a mountain of ridiculous improbabilities.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
01/31/04
Doris Toumarkine
Doris Toumarkine
Film Journal International

Next time, director Robbins and his screenwriters should spend a few hours inside a real high school rather than re-hashing stock stereotypes from bad '80s movies.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
01/31/04
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews

Lively and fun in places, but overall it has a listless, tepid feel.

Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
01/31/04
Stephanie Zacharek
Stephanie Zacharek
Salon.com

In the fleeting third act, The Perfect Score hints at what could have been. Unfortunately, its improvements arrive too little, too late.

Full Review Source: DustinPutman.com | comment Comment
01/30/04
Dustin Putman
Dustin Putman
DustinPutman.com

This is the gang that couldn't test straight... What's needed here is not a run-in with ETS, but with Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees.

Full Review Source: Worcester Telegram & Gazette | comment Comment
01/30/04
Daniel M. Kimmel
Daniel M. Kimmel
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Talks a pretty good game, but in the end the numbers just don't add up to much.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
01/30/04
Michael O'Sullivan
Michael O'Sullivan
Washington Post

A bizarre mismatch of The Breakfast Club and Mission: Impossible.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
01/30/04
Desson Thomson
Desson Thomson
Washington Post

Is there not something just plain wrong with a movie about cheating on exams that's less fun than taking one?

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
01/30/04
Geoff Pevere
Geoff Pevere
Toronto Star

Kids facing the SAT in real life may appreciate this movie, if only because it'll make them feel so much smarter than these characters. For the rest of us, it flunks.

Full Review Source: Seattle Times | comment Comment
01/30/04
Moira MacDonald
Moira MacDonald
Seattle Times

A dull film with unsympathetic characters brought together by a gimmicky premise that's handled with no imagination and a pristine fraudulence of emotion.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
01/30/04
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle

Seems meant for people who never placed higher than 600 on their SATs. For whom, in fact, Einstein is a bagel.

Full Review Source: San Diego Union-Tribune | comment Comment
01/30/04
David Elliott
David Elliott
San Diego Union-Tribune

It's smarter and more purposeful than most teen flicks.

Full Review Source: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | comment Comment
01/30/04
Jack Garner
Jack Garner
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

Maybe it's a case of too many cooks, but these archetypes are drawn as thin as the tip on a newly sharpened #2 pencil.

Full Review Source: Reel.com | comment Comment
01/30/04
Sarah Chauncey
Sarah Chauncey
Reel.com

It's a curious (and not very appealing) group of rebels, whose outrage seems to grow mainly from a sense of entitlement.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Daily News | comment Comment
01/30/04
Gary Thompson
Gary Thompson
Philadelphia Daily News

Surprisingly smart, surprisingly wise, predictably funny and yet unpredictable in general, it punctures stereotypes and taps into 17-year-old angst.

Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | comment Comment
01/30/04
Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Orlando Sentinel

It's not funny, though it tries to be, and it has nothing serious to say about the politics of the SATs, though it purports to.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
01/30/04
Jack Mathews
Jack Mathews
New York Daily News

The abundance of stereotypes is annoying; each character sticks to type and recites dialogue you would expect that type to say.

Full Review Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | comment Comment
01/30/04
Paul Doro
Paul Doro
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

When the most entertaining thing about a film is the printed press material that mimics the look of the test, you know you're in trouble.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
01/30/04
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
41 - 60 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 >> >|
all

Latest News for The Perfect Score

February 15, 2006: Trailer Bulletin: The Shaggy Dog
In 1959 Disney released a live-action family comedy about a family man who turns into a dog. Instead of keeping "The Shaggy Dog" out of the public consciousness, for... More...

December 20, 2005: Trailer Bulletin: The Shaggy Dog
Anyone up for a Disney remake of "The Shaggy Dog," starring Tim Allen? The one about a guy who turns into a dog? Anyone? If you're brave enough to check out this... More...

August 23, 2005: Thurber Out; Robbins In as New "Norbit" Director
Filmmaker Brian Robbins has settled into the director's chair for the DreamWorks comedy "Norbit," taking a position that was (until recently) held by... More...

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