Richard Clark is an unsatisfied prep school teacher at the fictional Wellington Academy, who accepts a job at inner city Marion Barry High School, much to the chagrin of his boss and father, Wellington headmaster Thaddeus Clark. Richard arrives to find the school in a state of disarray and disorder, while meeting several students and faculty members, including jaded, sour principal Evelyn Doyle, her cheerful assistant Victoria Chappell and student Griff McReynolds. Despite initial opposition to his teaching style and harassment from the school gang leader Paco, Richard begins connecting with his students and teaches them effectively, while developing a romantic relationship with Victoria. Barry High eventually is transformed into a fine educational establishment. Frustrated, Paco and his gang tamper with the school's final exam scores, causing everyone to fail. Griff, who grew to see Richard as a mentor, loses faith in him, as does the rest of the school and Richard is fired. Griff subsequently joins Paco's gang to make extra money. Victoria learns through word of mouth that Paco was behind the failing test scores and rushes to inform Richard, who decides to confront Paco and rescue Griff with the help of several of his students, including Anferny Jefferson, Natalie Thompson and Julie Rubels. By deceiving Mr. DeMarco, a local gangster, Richard and Victoria reach Paco and the local crime boss, "Mr. A", whom they find has been Principal Doyle the entire time. Griff is told the truth about the test scores and after a brief fight, Paco, Doyle and DeMarco are arrested. Richard presides over the graduation ceremony and proudly names Griff as the class valedictorian. The six main students of the film graduate. Richard makes good on his promise to send Griff to college and is in a relationship with Victoria.
Cast
Jon Lovitz as Richard Clark, a naive Caucasian teacher whose main goal is to help underachieving students at Marion Barry High School succeed.
* Lovitz also plays his own mother.
Tia Carrere as Victoria Chappell, the principal's assistant who sympathizes with Richard.
Louise Fletcher as Principal Evelyn Doyle, who believes Richard will fail.
Mekhi Phifer as Griff McReynolds, one of Clark's students and a former gang member who aspires to graduate high school and attend college.
Malinda Williams as Natalie Thompson, Griff's girlfriend.
Guillermo Díaz as Paco de la Vega al Camino Cordoba Jose Cuervo Sanchez Rodriguez Jr., Griff's former gang partner.
Brian Hooks as Anferny Jefferson, one of Clark's students. He is a slightly dimwitted gang member who only knows of urban pop culture.
The film opened at #2 on the weekend of October 25, 1996, behind the film Sleepers. The film remained in the top 5 for the next two weekends.
Reception
The film received generally negative reviews upon its release. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 19% rating based on reviews from 16 critics, with an average rating of 4.3/10. On Metacritic it has a score of 33 based on reviews from 10 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+ on scale of A to F. Roger Ebert gave the film 1 stars out of 4, and said "the movie makes two mistakes: It isn't very funny, and it makes the crucial error of taking its story seriously and angling for a happy ending."
