Three O'Clock High (1987)

Amateur movie with Big budget

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The teen movies of the 80's decade were dominated by the cheesy / romantic / well-intentioned cinema of John Hughes; the "Lemon Popsicle" sex teen movies clones such as Bob Clark's "Porky's" trilogy, "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" or "The Last American Virgin" and the Spielberg's executive produced adventure / fantasy teen flicks such as "Back to the Future" or "The Goonies".Phil Joanou's first venture as a director was an unconventional teen comedy for its time called "Three O'Clock High", set in an all american High School like the majority of Hughes' (and non-Hughes) flicks of this genre, inspired by the classic western "High Noon" starring Gary Cooper (in an Oscar winner role) and Grace Kelly and based in real life situations of the two screenwriters during their High School years.Joanou, a fan of Scorsese's "After Hours", released 2 years prior and also an unusual comedy, but set in the adult world, based its directing style and fancy cinematography straight for the teen movie genre with the help of the inovator cinematographer, Barry Sonnenfeld (an usual collaborator of the Coen brothers at that time) to acquire a 'cartoon-ish' / comic book style through stylized camera angles and proper lightning effects resulting in a visually nifty film which also benefited from a skillful editing giving the movie its congruous frantic pace.Besides the greatness of its technical aspects, the movie is also clever in its storytelling, the rivalry between the nerd, Jerry Mitchell and the "new kid on the block", the bad boy, Buddy Revell changes stereotypes through the course of the action with Mitchell being accused of theft, illegal weapon possession and even for cheating at the exam and Buddy, the long-haired' black leather jacket outsider being more smart & sensitive than people would give him credit for.Casey Siemaszko, after a string of good supporting roles in famous teen movies such as "Back to the Future", "Secret Admirer" and "Stand by Me" was given the lead role of Jerry Mitchell and he's perfectly cast giving life to his character, a nervous, unpopular & nerdy high schooler about to face his rite of passage to becoming a confident young man after his feud with the troubled misfit, played here by Richard Tyson, in his debut role, who delivered an interesting (and imposing) performance as Buddy Revell, even if his screentime is kind of short.The supporting players are filled with great character actors such as the always sinister, the late John P. Ryan ("Runaway Train", "Avenging Force", "Class of 1999"); Jeffrey Tambor and Mitch Pileggi (future Wes Craven's "Shocker" and better known as Skinner in the hit TV show, "The X-Files").Some may say, including the late Roger Ebert in his review, that this movie resembles a lot of an early teen movie starring Chris Makepeace, Adam Baldwin & Matt Dillon called "My Bodyguard", which is a great (and earlier) entry on the High School genre, but ultimately, "Three O'Clock High" is way more creative, memorable and well paced and much more worthy in the rewatchable factor.Steven Spielberg, who executive produced this movie, ordered to get his name removed from the credits after he watched a rough cut of this. Apparently, the big bearded wanted another "The Karate Kid" or a more conventional / cheesy High School teen flick and this kind of offbeat comedy startled him. He had already done the same two years before with "Fandango", the debut movie of director Kevin Reynolds which featured a young Kevin Costner in his first leading role. In my point of view, Spielberg made a big mistake of disowned both films, because they're way original and inventive and still hold up well today and maybe with the Spielberg name envolved, they could have had more chances at the box office, instead of being flops that ran into obscurity (only cinephiles know the existence).Also worthy of a mention is the memorable music score by Tangerine Dream and the additional music provided by Sylvester Levay.In short, "Three O'Clock High" deserves to be in the Top 10 of the best High School teen movies from the 80's, it's a great watch and one of the last breath of a genre that started the downfall in popularity at the same time as the end of the decade was approaching...On a side note, the hit TV Show for Fox Network that premiered in '90, "Parker Lewis Can't Lose" stole the concept, ideas, the cinematography and directing style of this one. Universal Pictures and Joanou should have sued Columbia Pictures Television for producing such a blatant rip-off.

Like Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper) in classic western High Noon, meek high school student Jerry Mitchell (Casey Siemaszko) finds himself nervously watching time tick by after he angers psychotic school 'touch-freak' Buddy Revell (Richard Tyson) by innocently patting him on the arm. Challenged to a fight in the school parking lot at three o'clock, Jerry tries desperately to find a way out of his predicament, but everything he does only seems to make matters worse.Three O'Clock High is one of those films that, more often than not, elicits a blank stare when I mention it to casual film fans, but which, in my humble opinion, deserves to share the same kind of popularity and recognition as much-loved '80s hits Risky Business and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.I suspect that its current anonymity is largely due to the lack of a future A-list star, Casey Siemaszko never achieving the fame of Cruise or Broderick, a crying shame because the film is every bit as worthy of admiration as the aforementioned better known teen classics. The smart script, while not laugh-out-loud funny, is consistently amusing throughout, director Phil Joanou's direction is stylish and suspenseful, the performances are excellent, and although the outcome is predictable (and highly improbable), the film's finale delivers that all important feel-good factor.

Nerdy Jerry Mitchell (Casey Siemaszko) has a bad day. His parents are away. His little sister Brei Mitchell (Stacey Glick) is more put together. His best friend Franny Perrins (Annie Ryan) has a spirit guide Ethan. Infamous Buddy Revell (Richard Tyson) is new to their school who supposedly hates to be touched. His friend Vincent Costello (Jonathan Wise) wants a story done about Buddy in the school paper and Jerry is assigned the story. While at the urinals, Jerry tries to talk to Buddy but it goes horribly wrong and Jerry touches Buddy. Buddy orders him to fight at 3:00 in the parking lot. Mr. Rice (Jeffrey Tambor) runs the school store. Karen Clarke is the school hottie. Duke Herman is the overly aggressive security guard. No matter how hard he tries, he can't stop or escape the fight. He steals money from school store to pay for Buddy to be beaten up and detective Mulvahill (Philip Baker Hall) is called in to investigate.I love the fun comedic manic style. The editing style from director Phil Joanou reminds me of Edgar Wright. It's got that fast snappy cuts. I fell in love with Annie Ryan and her wacky character. The main problem is that Casey Siemaszko is too old and not necessarily that funny. Although he's very good at being a pathetic guy. I actually like the fact that he's not the nicest or a simple good guy. Richard Tyson is great as the strong threatening bully. He really sells the character with very few words. Sure it makes no sense that the library could be trashed and nothing happens. It's best not to get stuck with the logic of it all.

So I watched 1987's three o'clock high starring, well no one whose name you will probably know. So is it good, I say it is was rad dude. I love this movie, I have seen it a few times since its original release, and I think it has the makings for status as a cult classic, if it hasn't achieved that moniker already. So it holds up 20 some odd years later, well why? Well I guess its the clever story, the humor, the use of the western theme where two men draw guns at high noon (well at three after class here), and the subtle homage to the biblical story of David versus Goliath. You take all that, you add a young Barry Sonnenfeld working on cinematography (men in black, Addams family, etc), a young Lisa Simpson playing a cheerleader, a practically unseen Paul Feig (freaks and geeks, the office, etc), and a bulked up Skinner from the x-files, you have a movie worth watching for a variety of reasons. I like how the characters day slowly goes from bad to worse just because he touched the wrong guy, how everything goes haywire after that, and how not only does he redeem himself in the end, but becomes both a living legend and a stud in the process before the fight even begins. This movie is just great, it is made in the mold of a John Hughes flick in some ways as well, these types of movies were green lighted a lot during that period, but this one stands on its own . So if you like 80's flicks that don't suck (well the music tangerine dream did does), if you like a good teen high school flick, or if you like clever and unique movies you can't go wrong. So put on your wayfarers and vans, pop some jiffy pop, maybe find a new coke somewhere, and enjoy.