The Perfect Score (PG-13, 2004)

THE PERFECT SCORE is a Breakfast Club-like heist movie in which a diverse group of high school seniors, each with his or her own reasons, unite to steal the answers for the SATs. Each character has two characteristics, one superficial and one hidden. That gives us Kyle (Chris Evans), the generic leading man who needs to learn what his real priorities are; Francesca (Scarlett Johansson), the offbeat chick whose wisecracks mask her vulnerability; Anna (Erika Christensen), the straight-A princess who would like to be less perfect; Roy (Leonardo Nam), the stoner with unsuspected depth; Matty (Bryan Greenburg), the best friend to everyone who needs to be a better friend to himself; and Desmond, the star athlete who can't tell his mother that he wants to skip St. Johns College and turn pro (Darius Miles).

The Perfect Score was produced by MTV, which may be why it feels more like a product created by a focus group than anything involving characters or story or a point of view. The characters even mention The Breakfast Club as slacker shorthand so that no one has to think too hard, screenwriters or audience.

The film is so slackly directed it might have been assembled by a focus group. Everything that someone thought might appeal to a teen audience is thrown into the mix. We get a little romance, a little angst, a little family pressure, a little (very little) low (very low) humor, a batch of MTV-friendly soundtrack tunes, and a lot of happily ever after. It's not a bad movie; it's just not a very good one.

Studio: Paramount Pictures
Director: Brian Robbins
Cast: Chris Evans, Erika Christensen, Scarlett Johansson
Genre: Drama
Run time: 98 minutes
Theatrical release: January 30, 2004
DVD release: June 29, 2004
MPAA Rating: PG-13
MPAA explanation: language, sexual content and some drug references