The Perfect Score

In American high schools any pupil who wishes to go on to university must take the S.A.T. exams. These judge mathematic, verbal and reasoning skills. (This could be coming to a UK school near you soon if you listen to what you hear in the media.) So how do you do well on the test? The solution the high school students in this film come up with, STEAL THE TEST!

This is apparently The Breakfast Club meets Oceans 11, a bunch of students who are brought together by circumstance, ability and chance to cheat what they see as a one test fits all, unfair, influence on their individual lives. There are some faces you will recognise amongst the cast; Scarlett Johansson, Hollywood’s hottest talent 2004, she is rich girl whose dad owns the building the test is kept in; Erika Christensen (Traffic, Swimfan) is the second best student in her year but has to much pressure from her parents to succeed; the leader of this unlikely crew is Chris Evans (Not Another Teen Movie and also in the release this month Cellular). The film makers have managed to give him a group of high school stereotypes, who would not normally give each other the time of day, but who become reliant on one another to succeed in their endeavours.

This is an enjoyable 90 minutes, as a straight to video release you might imagine this isn’t worth a look but popcorn, pizza and this movie isn’t a bad way to spend an evening, it could even become an educational tool for future A Level students who also have standardised testing to cope with! I guess some could argue it’s a warning to the powers that be…..why not both!

Pip Johnstone