DVD Reviews

School for Scoundrels

• Rating:
• Director: Todd Phillips
• Starring: Billy Bob Thornton
• Details: US / 100 mins (12A).

This remake of the 1960 movie School For Scoundrels Or How To Win Without Actually Cheating isn't half bad. Heder plays Roger, an insecure meter maid who lets everyone walk all over him. Badly needing a boost of confidence to impress his neighbour Amanda (Barrett), Roger enrols in a special class - run by the magnetic Dr. P (Thornton) and sidekick Lesher (Duncan) - that teaches men to be lions (figuratively speaking, of course). All goes well at first as Roger begins to believe in himself, but when Dr. P falls for Amanda it kicks off a showdown between the dominant males. Written and directed by Todd Phillips with his Starsky And Hutch, Road Trip and Old School co-writer Scot Armstrong, School For Scoundrels is as funny as you'd expect it to be: a hit-and-miss affair that'll make you giggle without making you guffaw. Heder isn't the best actor in the world - he'll probably tell you that himself - but he suits the goofy guy role to a T. Unfortunately, he never tries to do anything different with Roger, content to bounce around within the confines of the script instead of bringing some character to this character-driven comedy. It's Thornton who steals the show: his Dr. P is a cross between Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross and Brad Pitt in Fight Club. Thornton is given all the best lines and he knows how to deliver them. School For Scoundrels could have done more with the funny confidence-building side of things, but instead lends too much time to the romance angle. It really loses itself in the last half hour, taking too long to wind up when there wasn't a lot to wind up.

Review by Gavin Burke