**SPOILERS** **SPOILERS** I like high school films, especially when they're cheesy as hell, and looking at the box of this one, I figured I'd have a nice cheesy time with a teen exploitation title. Was I ever wrong and do you guys need to find this.
A new kid in town is having problems with the local popular jock teens at school. His dad knocks him around so he's out of there. His friends are new kids too and other than one of them, they're just as much jerks as the Mayor's son and his cronies who give our hero a hard time. Finally the jock Mayor's son brings a gun to school to teach some lessons to the new kid and all hell breaks loose. I'm trying to be as non-descriptive as possible because this is a film to go into cold so one can be pleasantly surprised.
First of all, this film is way ahead of it's time by about 10 to 12 years and if somebody tried to make it today, would probably either a) not find the funding or b) accused of exploiting teen violence. The acting has a slight amateur feel but works. The soundtrack suffers from some lousy 80's style synth rock but does contain a few slightly new wave ditties usually not found in an original soundtrack of this time period. When I thought this film would become 12 ANGRY MEN, it totally surprised me by keeping it's teenagers real, providing enough originality and characterization to see it through to the end. It doesn't cop out, it's well made, and would make a great double feature with the forgotten PERMANENT RECORD, another superior teen film. It's too bad that this movie will probably lapse into obscurity as well. It deserves to be seen. The video box has a copyright of 1988 for the film and 1992 as the video release date. I'm guessing this is from 1988. Highly recommended.
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