Ryan ChartrandThere is usually good reason behind a movie going straight to DVD, and “Senior Skip Day” is no exception. The movie attempts to mix “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” with “American Pie” and fails miserably. Don’t the writers know there is an unwritten rule to never mess with the classics? (“Senior Skip Day” is so bad that it causes “American Pie” to be categorized as a classic.)
“Senior Skip Day” features the washed-up Tara Reid, Larry Miller (best known for “The Nutty Professor”), Lea Thompson from “Back to the Future,” Talen Torriero from “Laguna Beach” (yes, I’m serious), and Norm McDonald. The rest of cast is mostly comprised of unknowns.
The movie chronicles the life of Adam (Gary Lundy), a high school senior who ruins the original plan for his school’s senior skip day by accidentally informing Principal Dickwalder (Miller) where the students were planning to throw the party of the year. (The proposed location happened to be the principal’s house…) The senior class turns against Adam, forcing him to come up with a new location for the party. In order to regain any respect he once had from his peers, Adam offers to have the party at his house.
Adam buys alcohol for the party with the help of some old man, and manages to build one of the largest bongs imaginable. While a few of his closest friends help him set up the party, they decide to call over some “models” (more like strippers). When the models arrive, Adam and his friends take pictures with them using the cameras on their cell phones and end up sending the pictures to all of their friends in order to lure them to the party. Soon the place is packed with the entire senior class, giving Adam the chance to grab the attention of his longtime crush, Cara. She is, of course, both nice and beautiful, but the only problem is her slutty, asshole boyfriend (Torriero). Adam competes for Cara’s attention at the party, and the plot pretty much drops off from there.
The most shocking part of “Senior Skip Day” was Reid’s role. She didn’t play a drunk, a drug addict or a sex-crazed female . she played the wiser, older sister of the main character. WEIRD. This was probably the largest stretch of her acting career to date. However, she still managed to seem out of it, even though she was really only in the movie’s beginning and end.
The acting in “Senior Skip Day” is pretty awful, especially since it’s by a bunch of actors in their 20s pretending to be in high school, but the worst part has to be the copycat plot. After the Principal Dickwalder finds out about the party, he spends the rest of the movie trying to figure out where the seniors are partying so he can bust them. He randomly shows up at some of their houses and threatens people along the way. Sounds too much like the principal in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” although the principal in “Senior Skip Day” takes this role to a whole new level by abusing a student and snorting cocaine in front of parents. The movie’s dull plot also included constant stereotyping. This movie could have been mildly entertaining if the writers hadn’t taken the easy way out by filling the script with an overdone, offensive plotline.
For anyone who may still want to see “Senior Skip Day,” it is available on DVD May 6, but I want those 83 minutes of my life back.