Movie Review: Middle School The Worst Years of My Life (2016)

Hello All,

    So this was an unexpected plan for me. A friend of mine at work wanted to see this movie, so he asked if I wanted to tag along. I decided why not (especially since I didn’t have to cover the tickets), and so we went to see it. Now I think most of us are going to agree that this movie will not set the world on fire, lord knows the Young Adult genre needs help nowadays. Middle School at least looks different in the sense that it’s set in a modern day setting. So it’s easy to see at least a potential genre stand out if handled correctly. So does Middle School at least try to stand out? Let’s find out together shall we?

Plot Summary - When Rafe Khatchadorian (Griffin Gluck) transfers to yet another new school, he immediately clashes with Principal Dwight (Andy Daly). When Dwight destroys Rafe’s artbook, Rafe decides to destroy Dwight’s rulebook one rule at a time.

Pros - The stand out thing in the film by far is the animated sequences. They’re basically Rafe’s interpretation of the things going on around him, which actually ties into the film’s biggest and best plot point, which I’m actually not going to reveal here. There’s also a handful of funny moments as well, and the cast is okay.

Cons - This is another tragic case of kids film made by committee. There’s just so many pandering jokes, buzzwords, cliche moments, adult jokes that are just for the adults that no child would ever get, and almost anything else you can think of. Most of the characters are extremely one dimensional and almost all of the humour falls flat, makes no sense, or are just jokes that go on for way too long.

Final Score - 2/10

I really, truly, wanted to go up a point or two because of the insanely good plot point and animation, but I honestly cannot condone these tired, and lazy, kid/young adult films.

Next: Birth of a Nation - I’m really looking forward to this one. It’ll be either Tuesday or Wednesday.

Links:

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Until Next Time, I’ll see you folks at the movies.