Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

dianefhlbsch A small group of upper middle class honor students use their squeaky clean image as camouflage to create alter-egos for themselves. Unfortunately, their arrogance grows with each additional step into the dark side, until they are in over their heads.Every high school student of an affluent family knows that the goal is to get into an Ivy League university as well as the scholarships that go with it. This includes having the grades as well as all the extra-curricular activities that "look great" on the applications. But there is also the undercurrent of all high school life – peer pressure as well as trying to rise above the norm to be the social elite. It takes some very clever proactive actions to make the transformation from "brain" to "cool" in the eyes of one's fellow classmates, as well as the right random situations, while maintaining the "goodie" image to the adult world. Ben and his friends have figured it out and think they have everything under control. Unfortunately, their neat formula for maintaining their dual-lives does not factor in random acts of chance, or emotions.This is a MUST SEE film, and hopefully a wakeup call, for every parent of "good students", of materially overindulged kids, or who really just does not pay attention. While it does take some actions to an extreme and even unrealistic proportion, it is so very possible that much of this COULD happen. Unfortunately, the film ends a little too soon. It never really addresses the consequences of walking away from certain illegal behaviors as well as the emotional and legal ramifications of others.

Tobey I was compelled to borrow this from my library due to my crush on John Cho, aka Harold from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. Anyhoo, I was so surprised at what a great, compelling movie it is. The actors are uniformly excellent. I was most drawn to the performances of Parry Shen and Jason Tobin, who play Ben and Virgil. Friends since childhood, they get drawn into a stylish and dark high school underworld of crime and violence.MTV Films has produced some interesting films, possibly one of the few companies that consistently releases original and surprising 'feels like independent' films.

dilbertsuperman PLOT: It ain't easy havin to represent when you are rollin with your homies in the suburban upper middle class Asian hood yo. A handful of idiots think they are smart by creating their own flavor of Asian gang. This particular gang is about as believable as any other fairy tale you might tell a small child or retarded individual to get them off to sleep.This is classic Hollywood here, nothing believable or groundbreaking or that we haven't seen before better somewhere else. The main notable difference is that all the actors are Asian for the most part and it focuses on the exploits of a thoroughly unbelievable suburban Asian gang.This is an obvious stab at the Asian market with the proper watering down of any ethnic reality to make it accessible to American audiences. You can tell they have their fingers crossed for a crossover hit with this puppy.One of the themes I have issue with is these children voicing that they are so smart- that's repeated a lot throughout the film. Yet the scenes belie a naiveté and a stupidity that is more indicative of the writers of the script defying any logical sense(for the simple reason they have none) than the believable actions of members of a gang that gets top grades and packs heat.What we see here is a fairly common beast in high school- the "smart" kid with a serious mental issue that proves he's actually quite stupid via choosing the role of sociopath and draping it in the illusion of mental superiority. They think the next logical evolutionary step in higher consciousness is to be as evil as possible to achieve your goals. Only stupid people are nice is their message. I find the film unrealistic since a pack of idiots like this would have been caught. They are not smooth at all.There are plenty of edgy Japanese films that involve high school that aren't made by Hollywood dummies and are cool and quite entertaining. This is not one of those movies! Unfortunately, since the titles are usually Japanese and hence easily forgettable, none come to mind right now to mention specifically.

lkuok Justin Lin does a great job in displaying Asian Americans in a light that reveals that Asian Americans are no different than your average Caucasian Americans. Although it somewhat reconstructs the model minority image, it deconstructs the image that Asian Americans also participate in similar activities than their Caucasian neighbors would participate in if they had similar social milieus - that is, gang-like activities. I think Lin had something going, and towards the end, the movie lost some of its initial attraction. I think the movie could've stayed in the same direction that it was starting on, that of the SAT cramming and the trouble that they brought as well. Parry Shen does a great job as does John Cho.