School for Scoundrels

2006 "Life's A Game. Learn How To Play."
5.9| 1h40m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 29 September 2006 Released
Producted By: Dimension Films
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

A young guy short on luck, enrolls in a class to build confidence to help win over the girl of his dreams, which becomes complicated when his teacher has the same agenda.

Genre

Comedy, Romance

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Director

Todd Phillips

Production Companies

Dimension Films

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School for Scoundrels Audience Reviews

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.
Python Hyena School for Scoundrels (2006): Dir: Todd Phillips / Cast: Jon Heder, Billy Bob Thornton, Jacinda Barrett, Michael Clarke Duncan, Ben Stiller: Comedy about learning opposition to what is really best. Jon Heder plays a shy individual with no self confidence and working at a job with no future. He learns of a self confidence course and enrolls under the teachings of Dr. P. This leads to competed affection for a young woman in his building. Observant with twist after twist in the finale. Directed by Todd Phillips as a followup to Old School and certainly an improvement over the dreaded Road Trip. Heder plays a role viewers may relate to going from pushed over to being challenged and eventually successor. Billy Bob Thornton plays Dr. P who covers his tracks while dishing out lies. Jacinda Barrett plays the standard love interest whose only interesting feature is that she is Australian. The idea that Heder is fighting for her leaves no surprise as to how this turns out. Michael Clarke Duncan plays an associate to Dr. P who is nothing more than a thug. Ben Stiller plays a depressed student who was a victim of the teacher's antics in the past. Although a message of self respect does exist, this film seems more interested in bathroom humour than anything else. Like the class itself it presents a potential theme then buries it within nonsense leaving effective plot twists to gain honors. Score: 6 / 10
SnoopyStyle Roger (Jon Heder) is a meek meter reader who gets hit with panic attacks. He's in love with his neighbor Amanda (Jacinda Barrett). She lives with her smart-mouthed roommate Becky (Sarah Silverman). Ian (David Cross) gives him a phone number. It's a strange class run by Lesher (Michael Clarke Duncan) and Dr. P (Billy Bob Thornton). Then Dr. P starts dating Amanda and Roger gets help from former student Lonnie (Ben Stiller).Todd Phillips is trying for wacky but I find the pathetic Roger really annoying. His annoying weakness doesn't even make sense. It opens with two guys shooting and robbing him but they don't even mention filing a report. They obviously have the thugs' names since he already wrote them the ticket. It's a really stupid opening and worst of all, it's not funny.I don't blame Jon Heder for his character. It's just the way it's written. Neither him nor Billy Bob is funny. The only person who gets laughs regularly is Sarah Silverman. That is all her. That shows how a Todd Phillips comedy works. He comes up with a premise but it takes some wacky comedians to make it work. 'Road Trip' has Tom Green among others. 'Old School' has Will Ferrell. 'The Hangover' has Zach Galifianakis. This one doesn't really have anybody like that.The paint ball section is funny for about 2 seconds when Roger gets shoot over and over again. Then I don't understand why the rest of it would actually be funny. It's what happens for most of the movie. It leaves me scratching my head looking for the comedy. There is a very lightweight rom-com in the center of this. I do mean very lightweight. Other than being pretty, the affable Jacinda Barrett contributes nothing to the comedy. She's simply the trophy. The movie just makes her look stupid.
wes-connors In New York, dorky loser Jon Heder (as Roger Waddell) gets pushed around at work. And, he can't pick up flirty Australian neighbor Jacinda Barrett (as Amanda Richards). Taking a friend's advice, Mr. Heder enrolls in a self-confidence class run by ballsy Billy Bob Thornton (as "Dr. P."). Then, after Heder learns how to "roar like a lion" and live dangerously enough to attract Ms. Barrett, he finds Mr. Thornton becoming a rival for her affection.A gay subplot involves Thornton's burly henchman Michael Clarke Duncan (as Lesher), who turns out to be sodomizing Thornton's students. One traumatized rape victim, Ben Stiller (as Lonnie Ratcliff), shows up with revenge on his mind. The tennis match damage inflicted on Thornton, and the sock stuffed in Heder's mouth are two highlights. But, director Todd Phillips' "School for Scoundrels" never rises above the usual sophomoric chuckles.*** School for Scoundrels (9/29/06) Todd Phillips ~ Jon Heder, Billy Bob Thornton, Jacinda Barrett, Ben Stiller
morpheusatloppers Reading the other comments on this film showed that few people realize the title, at least, hails from a British film released in 1960, which while having the same name, is fundamentally different. Indeed, I could find NO reference to the original in the film's credits (which I suspect saved them some CASH).Which brings into focus the whole issue of "remakes'.For instance, the recent film entitled "The Italian Job" was really NOT a remake. It was merely the central character's favourite film and it "inspired" him to use the techniques in the film to pull off a job. In fact, the recent film might have done better with a completely DIFFERENT title, as it must have irritated many viewers who were expecting a true remake. In fact, if you forget about the original film, the "remake" - as a stand-alone film - is actually quite GOOD.The same could be said of "The House On Haunted Hill".On the other hand, TRUE remakes are usually RUBBISH. Treatments of great modern French films and classic British and American films almost ALWAYS suffer in comparison with their originals. This writer avoids them like the plague - I only watched this one (on TV) to see how the subtlety of the original's theme of Lifemanship, Gamesmanship and One-Upmanship had been handled by Hollywood - it hadn't.In fact, apart from Billy Bob Thornton's character name of "Dr P" (an obvious reference to Alistair Sim's character - "Potter" - taken from the original writer of the books which formed the basis for the original film) and the inclusion of a game of tennis (Ian Carmichael did not HIT Sim in the original!) the only thing taken from the original was the concept of a secret school designed to turn losers into winners.But in the original, this was achieved by the use of "ploys" designed to instill doubt and confusion in the students' opponents - "Your opponent is everyone who is not YOU" - while in the "remake", the "techniques" involved were more akin to a self-assertiveness class, with subtlety being replaced by naked aggression.So, as with the "remakes" of "The Italian Job" and "The House On Haunted Hill", this is a film that did itself NO favours by trying to be another example of Hollywood's OBSESSION with remakes. As with the afore-mentioned, it was actually quite a good film on IT'S OWN MERIT.