Strike! (1998)

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Strike (1998): Dir: Sarah Kemochan / Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Gaby Hoffmann, Rachel Leigh Cook, Lynn Redgrave, Vincent Kartheiser: Combination of National Lampoon's Animal House and Rock N' Roll High School but lacking the comic wit of both. Title refers to Kirsten Dunst's refusal to change. Hopefully after being part of this film she will require a major change. An all girl school is threatened with the possibility of going co-ed. This threatens misfit Dunst who is often late for classes and sabotages anything she considers a threat. Gaby Hoffmann is the new student who believes that the school should speak out. Vulgar and somewhat sexist with Dunst stashing liquor bottles about a bus and the boys who arrive innocent end up puking on everything. Directed by Sarah Kernochan with some fine location areas. This film is also saddled with several names, which can be a bitch when locating it. Dunst and Hoffmann play opposites but neither character obtains a personality. Dreary supporting work by Rachel Leigh Cook as the standard rival who will stop at nothing to expose Dunst. Lynn Reggrave plays the headmistress who cannot think for herself. She is suppose to be in charge but too often she is taking advice from people who are seen as total morons. Everything seems recycled and terribly dull but its message at least rings true. Strong co-ed theme elevates but the crude humour poise a strike against it. Score: 3 / 10

It is definitely a movie that touched my heart and made me moved to LOTS of tears!I've recommended this movie to some friends, expecting them to feel the same way that I felt. It's so good to see somebody playing your life in a movie.This is a movie based on a private girls' boarding school and also a true story happened on the director herself years ago, in her teenage life.In the movie, those girls have dreams of their own. And they all achieve their goals after stepping into the grow-ups' world (they really are very successful in real world). I was touched because I saw how much they cherish each other's secret and how heartedly they help each other through the difficulties in reaching out for their dreams. I , like them, have lived in a all-girls boarding school for 6 years. The movie reminded me those times at many nights, in our beds, my friends and I listened carefully to each other's dream about future, we share our young hearts, just like the girls in the movie do.I don't know what other people would think of this movie, especially males. But after reading some critics about this movie, I know that it is time for girls to stand out. There has never been any movie like this to tell what a girl really wants and how we girls think ourselves are. Any girls who have spend their teenage time in Wesley would love this movie like I do , because during the movie I cry out several time that" it's just like what we do in school!". I think mothers would love this film because don't they always want to know what their girls are doing in school! Also teachers in school would pleased to see this movie because many things they want these girls to know but don't know in what way to teach them is the best way are shown in the movie. We will all smile and understand that what a girl's responsibility is to respect our own dream and to think that we are so important. Strike is definitely fitted to girls who want to prove the real woman in them. It shows how friendship will eventually conquer all. I really liked this because it showed the value of friendship and trust in our teenage life. I hope everyone has a great time seeing this because I did.

There were some amusing moments, but I guess the fact that I'm not a teenage girl was a problem. There were some fairly intelligent moments, too (not exactly something I expected) but it's no cinematic masterwork. (I suppose that's a given) It is nice to see that teen movies are getting at least a little bit racier. I can't wait for the day (or night, rather) that I watch this at a midnite art house screening on a double bill with something like Salo: 120 Days of Sodom. Now THAT would be something to talk about...

Im a 30 something male so I guess this film wasn´t really made for my focus group,but I liked it,intelligent script and good acting,cool with the whole feminist slant on a teen movie.Ok so the story was a bit thin and you saw the end coming.but its a feel good movie and supposed to be that way,the people that complain over such trifles are the ones whining bout the dancescenes in Singin in the rain or the logic of Where eagles dare,enjoy it for an intelligent comedy with a message for us all