High School High (1996)

If you're not in the right frame of mind for these types of comedies, they can get pretty exhausting after about five minutes. That might be part of the reason this movie never grew on me over the years. A professor is demoted from an esteemed college to an urban high school where he gets even less respect, and has to turn around and inspire the young minds. Jon Lovitz heads this spoof on Blackboard Jungle, Dangerous Minds, Stand and Deliver, Lean on Me and other "inner city" movies featuring disillusioned youth. I've always felt that Lovitz was an underrated actor and Tia Carrere has always been severely underutilized, so this has its charms, but it's not without its faults. Sadly, the satire factor is lacking, and it becomes the very thing it's trying to skewer.

2 nails on a chalkboard out of 5

Invaders from Mars (1986)

Young David Gardner (Hunter Carson) watches a meteor shower from the safety of his bedroom window one night, but in addition to falling rocks he sees an alien spaceship land not far from his home, on Copper Hill. Not long afterwards, the adults in the surrounding area begin to act oddly.
A remake of the 1953 film of the same name that on paper has a lot going for it: directed by Tobe Hooper, it co-stars Karen Black, has creature effects by Stan Winston and music by Christopher Young. The result is a peculiar PG rated movie with glorious 80s FX and some set-bound campness in the later half. It's not usual for a youth in a movie for kids to be braver than the adults, but in Black's case it's because her character (a school nurse) understands the implications more than the child, which successfully adds some depth.

2½ sinkholes out of 5

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST [1975]

Easily one of the best films of all time, director Miloš Forman's adaptation of Ken Kesey's counterculture novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest deserves all the endless accolades it receives.
A free-spirited hoodlum pleads insanity in order to serve his sentence in the mental hospital rather than endure hard labor on the prison farm.
A microscopic study of the deinstitutionalization of it's time and many of the questionable institutional processes that went through, the tale also reflects the madness of society and what might be the best way to find control within it.  A clash of cultural and behavioral beliefs make for some of the best character moments from stars Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher, who I believe are at their absolute best here.   Graced with humor, thoughtfulness and wonderful performances all around, Cuckoo's Nest is an off-kilter melodrama that despite being over 40 years old, still makes some great points that are as significant as they were yesterday.

5 day-trips without the day-passes out of 5

Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)

A 120 minute steaming, festering, locust covered turd.
It was my third attempt at watching the shit-fest, I had face-palmed myself into a coma the previous two times. I was determined to make it to the end. Determination is overrated. Never again.

0½ pseudoscientific quasi-religious bullshit out of 5