Lower Learning (2008/Anchor Bay DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Film: C-

 

 

Jason Biggs seems to be poised to stay in gross comedy hell and his latest low point is the appropriately titled Lower Learning (2008), Mark Lafferty’s surprisingly dumb, boring, dull, predictable would-be romp about “Geraldine Ferraro Elementary School” and the decline of education even at this freshly-named institution.  Joined by Eva Longoria Parker (picking yet another comedy dud between seasons of Desperate Housewives), the show cannot even be saved by Rob Corddry of The Daily Show because he is a strait-jacketed as the rest of the cast.

 

Making supposedly funny faces does not help and despite the humor extending to the youngest of child actors, that does not make it Our Gang or the original Bad News Bears, as there is no realism here to have the laughs off of and the adults are no smarter than the children in a bad “precocious child 1980s” way.  At a very long 97 minutes, the result is more like a very bad TV movie or straight-to-video cash-in from… the 1980s!  Biggs is the worst, though, wearing out his American Pie persona paper thin and not finding new things to do as Seann William Scott and Chris Klein have.  He could start by throwing out all of his suit/tie combos!

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on is much softer and detail challenged than a new shoot should be, with motion blur throughout, suggesting a poor HD shoot.  The standard Dolby Digital 5.1 on the DVD is rather weak, but has some better fidelity, though the soundfield is always choppy and it sounds like the limits of a low budget production, with dialogue that is particularly uneven.  Extras include a behind the scenes look at the production, trailer, deleted scenes and outtakes, all with little point.  This is the kind of school that needs closed down.

 

Class dismissed indeed!

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo