I hardly remember this film but since I have seen it and I have noticed that no one else except one person has commented on it i felt obligated to report I what I remember about it. I am doing this because I feel even small movies that most would view as crap need some recognition because work did in fact go into it. And that work is meant to entertain us so that is why I comment. Now after that lengthy opening, I remember this film to be very slow and sight gaggish. It sounded as if Mcgruff from the old don't do crime commercials was doing the needless narration of the film. I remember the line for people to sign up for classes at the beginning of the film to be quite funny. It involved a lot of mixed characters meeting for the first time at the onset of school. it reminded me of the film Clueless which would come many years later. The best part of this film and the thing that has stayed with me since I first watched it was the song that was the Main Titie them. Its annoying but rocks It repeats the word Rebel like twice and the goes into the high part. it sounds gimmicky and it is but it is the best part of the film. It also the reason i felt the film deserved four stars because after all these years (about six I think) that is what still stays with me and i find myself singing it often.
4 Reviews
The worst film of all time (and proud of it)...
mentalcritic31 December 2002
While I enjoy a good film that creates a fantasy world and takes it as seriously as it expects the audience to take it, such as the recent adaptations of The Lord Of The Rings, my primary interest lies in films which are so bad they're good. Rebel High is at once one of the best and worst films I have ever seen, and it's damned good fun at the same time.
Set in a fictional high school where the punk students have taken over the place, no opportunity for a laugh at the film's expense is passed over. Every situation in this comedy is so ridiculous that it makes one wonder exactly what the screenwriters were smoking. Even the grafitti in the cafeteria delivers a good punchline. If you've ever wanted to make a bow and arrow in woodwork class, then you don't want to miss this film.
But what makes the film more fun than anything Hollywood has churned out in the past thirty years is that it doesn't take itself so damned seriously. Compare Rebel High with a recent Hollywood comedy like In And Out or High Fidelity, and the laughs difference is so astronomical as to be ridiculous. Rebel High is quite obviously a film where the cast and crew don't give a toss about Oscar nominations, they just want to entertain the viewer (and possibly themselves).
It's also quite funny to reflect on how there are shades of Rebel High in every secondary educational institution in Western society. The students are only there because they have to be, the teachers are stressed out to the max, and the rest of the staff seem to view it in terms like the prison that every school really is. Even sixteen years after it was released, I am still eagerly awaiting its release on an optical medium like DVD-Video. This is comedy the way it should be.
Set in a fictional high school where the punk students have taken over the place, no opportunity for a laugh at the film's expense is passed over. Every situation in this comedy is so ridiculous that it makes one wonder exactly what the screenwriters were smoking. Even the grafitti in the cafeteria delivers a good punchline. If you've ever wanted to make a bow and arrow in woodwork class, then you don't want to miss this film.
But what makes the film more fun than anything Hollywood has churned out in the past thirty years is that it doesn't take itself so damned seriously. Compare Rebel High with a recent Hollywood comedy like In And Out or High Fidelity, and the laughs difference is so astronomical as to be ridiculous. Rebel High is quite obviously a film where the cast and crew don't give a toss about Oscar nominations, they just want to entertain the viewer (and possibly themselves).
It's also quite funny to reflect on how there are shades of Rebel High in every secondary educational institution in Western society. The students are only there because they have to be, the teachers are stressed out to the max, and the rest of the staff seem to view it in terms like the prison that every school really is. Even sixteen years after it was released, I am still eagerly awaiting its release on an optical medium like DVD-Video. This is comedy the way it should be.
Rebel High
BandSAboutMovies18 September 2023
Warning: Spoilers
New Africa High: A Low Comedy by Evan Keliher is a social satire on the plight of Western education in the 1960s and 70s, written by "a high school dropout turned retired teacher" who "smoked so much pot to save my sight that I developed X-ray vision and was arrested for seeing thru girls dresses."
The movie of the book, Rebel High, was made in Canada by Harry Jakobs, who also produced Evil Judgement. He also did a teen soap opera called Time of Your Life that Keliher wrote for.
New school principal; Edwin Swimper (Harvey Berger) has taken over after the last person to do the job died from stress. There are nonstop gang wars and teachers wear body armor just to survive, so he tries something new: anyone can take any classes that they want. This works out as well as you'd expect, as a gang leader by the name of Calvin Hampster (Kenny Robinson) takes up archery to improve his combat skills and then burns down the Swimper's office. Swimper quits and the school descends further into anarchy.
Vice principal Norman Relic (Wayne Flemming) is left to pick up the pieces. Organized crime figure and school board head Mr. Wilcox (David McCallum) wants to raze the place and put up a parking lot, but there's one last chance: Red G. Peckham (Stu Trivax) will take over. He's fresh from Africa and if he can get the school to pass an inspection, it can stay. He might be even crazier than the students, given to long speeches about Jesus. But then Peckham is shot in a battle between Calvin and Bruno Bataglia (Pierre Larocque). He's not dead, just resting, as they stash his body in a school locker as the inspectors arrive.
According to the invaluable Canuxploitation, this movie was cast with members of Toronto's Yuk Yuks stand-up comedy troupe, including Wayne Flemming, Kenny Robinson, Winston Spear, Freddie James, and Stu Trivaxa. It was filmed at the Baron Byng High School on St. Urbain Street in Montreal, a place that was soon torn down.
This tries to be a live action cartoon, but it feels like it last forever and has little joy in it. But you know, sometimes you watch these movies for, well, science.
"This is a story about a high school. It isn't much of a story, but then, this isn't much of a high school. It's full of beer drinkers, dope smokers, hooky players, liars and *****les...and those are just the teachers."
The movie of the book, Rebel High, was made in Canada by Harry Jakobs, who also produced Evil Judgement. He also did a teen soap opera called Time of Your Life that Keliher wrote for.
New school principal; Edwin Swimper (Harvey Berger) has taken over after the last person to do the job died from stress. There are nonstop gang wars and teachers wear body armor just to survive, so he tries something new: anyone can take any classes that they want. This works out as well as you'd expect, as a gang leader by the name of Calvin Hampster (Kenny Robinson) takes up archery to improve his combat skills and then burns down the Swimper's office. Swimper quits and the school descends further into anarchy.
Vice principal Norman Relic (Wayne Flemming) is left to pick up the pieces. Organized crime figure and school board head Mr. Wilcox (David McCallum) wants to raze the place and put up a parking lot, but there's one last chance: Red G. Peckham (Stu Trivax) will take over. He's fresh from Africa and if he can get the school to pass an inspection, it can stay. He might be even crazier than the students, given to long speeches about Jesus. But then Peckham is shot in a battle between Calvin and Bruno Bataglia (Pierre Larocque). He's not dead, just resting, as they stash his body in a school locker as the inspectors arrive.
According to the invaluable Canuxploitation, this movie was cast with members of Toronto's Yuk Yuks stand-up comedy troupe, including Wayne Flemming, Kenny Robinson, Winston Spear, Freddie James, and Stu Trivaxa. It was filmed at the Baron Byng High School on St. Urbain Street in Montreal, a place that was soon torn down.
This tries to be a live action cartoon, but it feels like it last forever and has little joy in it. But you know, sometimes you watch these movies for, well, science.
"This is a story about a high school. It isn't much of a story, but then, this isn't much of a high school. It's full of beer drinkers, dope smokers, hooky players, liars and *****les...and those are just the teachers."
Pretty funny stuff, Schlepper.
humaddict-117 May 2007
I'm going to give this a 6 out of 10 mainly because after about 13 years without seeing this movie, it's never been far out of mind and i've been spouting some of the forgotten (or just never-heard)quotes in this movie to the disdain of my peers, who have no idea what i'm talking about. Back in high school, an old pal of mine recommended this, and we instantly took to dropping lines from the film into daily conversation. While it may be B-Grade schlock, how often can you watch trash like this and get a thorough education on the free enterprise system ("The man who takes the risk is the man who makes the profit" or something along those lines issuing from some fat dudes mouth), the declaration that a particular teacher is "Thick" (you have to hear the guy say..."Mat, that math teacher be thick!"), and the awesome Mr. Relic busting in on the lavish restroom run by the school's premier 'gang' of malcontents only to announce he could smoke a pound of their $hit without batting an eye. I'd highly recommend The Wizard of Speed and Time, Haggard, and Street Trash for anyone who finds this sort of drivel entertaining. I certainly do.
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