Slackers (2002) focuses on a group of three friends Dave (Devon Sawa), Sam (Jason Segel), and Jeff (Michael Maronna) who are caught cheating on a physics test by Ethan (Jason Schwartzman). He then blackmails them into helping getting the girl that he so desperately stalks Angela (Jamie King). While the movie is similar to other teen movies in the same genre such as American Pie; it's actually pretty funny.
Story/writing: The story wasn't too bad. But it wasn't entirely complicated or complex, either. I'm kind of torn on how much of it, I should credit the story as opposed to the acting and the characters. The blackmail angle was sort of contrived, I thought, but what do I know? Grade: 6/10.
Characters: Now here comes the fun part. Every teen movie has the lovable slacker who doesn't try but is incredibly intelligent but is not focused on the normal success (Dave, in this movie).
You have the girl who will undoubtedly make him question his whole life and maybe make him change, Angela in this movie.
The main girl's best friend, played by Laura Prepon, in this movie.
You have the strange kid who's intelligent but crazy, Jeff.
You have the main character's true best friend who helps with the antics and shenanigans, Sam.
Then there's the bad guy. Typically, this is a jock frat boy nerd. Usually it's one of those three things, sometimes all three. This time, it's the nerd, Ethan.
Grade: 3/10. It hurts to be stereotypical.
Directing: The strange flashbacks or daydreams are great. While they don't contribute much to the storyline other than to re-enforce the idea that Ethan is a true creeper. I don't know how the director could have improved but the pacing wasn't terrible. Grade: 8/10.
Suspension of disbelief: For four years of college, I have never experienced anything close to what the teen movies about colleges have tried to show me would happen. Also, I never really bought into the whole blackmail cheating premise. But that's just me. Grade: 2/10.
Acting: This is the strength of the movie. Jason Schwartzman is perfect as Ethan. I don't know of another actor who could've pulled that off, outside of maybe Zack Braff. Jason Segel is always phenomenal. Devon Sawa pulls off the cockiness of the character, perfectly. Michael Maronna was good, as well. All of the main charactes were great. Angela was merely good. Grade: 9.5/10.
Dialogue: I didn't get the seed of doubt angle that Dave kept saying. Ethan's lines were delivered and written perfectly. Most of the characters' lines were funny and delivered well. Grade: 8/10.
Genre specific: If we compare it to teen comedies, I thought it was funnier than most. I also thought the acting was better than most. It wasn't funny enough to dominate the comedy genre but if we place it in with the other teen comedies, then the score is higher. Grade: 8/10.
Timing: The movie kind of dragged at parts, especially the I saw the sign part. The comedic timing was there for the most part and it wasn't a long movie. Grade: 8/10.
Pseudo-philosophical questions/theme: I'm not 100% sure of what the theme was. What I took from the movie was, it's better to be skillful at things that don't matter because ultimately those things that don't matter will be what gets you out of trouble.
In all seriousness, I'm not sure what the theme was.
Grade: 0/10.
Re-watchability: I've seen the movie twice, now. I saw it once on Comedy Central and began searching for a way to watch it again, much later. I finally found it on Crackle, years later. It was still funny.
Grade: 5/10.
Score: 57.5/100
See, I don't give great grades all the time.
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