Barely Lethal (2015)

This movie was recommended to me by Netflix at 98%. I cannot stress how much I want to cancel my membership over this. I would rather be waterboarded than watch this movie. The cast is a bunch of allstars, which is the only saving grace of this film, but the script is so terrible. Clearly the goal with this film was to make the most uncomfortable cringe-fest in human history. You can't tell me that wasn't the goal, because that was obviously the goal.

The only reason I can think of for all the bad reviews and horrid IMDb rating, is that people went into the film expecting originality, but instead got a cliché movie, but a cliché is only a cliché if it's not used as a cliché.Many times reviewers will condescend harsh critics by saying they didn't understand the movie, and therefor that's the reason they must not have liked it. Don't know about you but I hate to be the recipient of said condescension. However in this case, I think I need to be a hypocrite because I genuinely think many missed the point. This movie was actually brilliant in its own right. Every cliché, every predictable outcome, every ridiculous encounter was all intentionally scripted to be as such, and for that reason it actually made it not just bearable but entertaining to watch. Hailee Steinfeld's character (Megan) is the walking encyclopedia of teen pop culture and she wants to experience every second of it. As expected that experience comes with hard aches and coming of age realities. The fact that each character makes it blatantly obvious of their cliché role in this cliché movie, is somehow anti-cliché, and therefore an extremely fun and well acted family feel-good movie. It's not going to be for everyone, but if you can appreciate a fun perspective on the teen culture genre, you'll enjoy this for what it is. It's not an 8 out of 10 movie, but in its own way and in its respective corner of entertainment, an 8 is well deserved. It's the cliché that isn't a cliché.

An action comedy with mostly female cast and Sam Jackson? Sign me the hell up!OK, the thing about Barely Lethal is that it's extremely predictable. But for some reason it does not lose its charm because of that. I watched this movie with a friend and mostly it was fun to guess who's going to do what and who's something secretly and all that. Sure, when you're watching the movie alone, it might not be that fun, but for this time it worked. If I'd watch it a second time, maybe that quality would be annoying - or would I even care, if I've already seen the film once and I know what's going to happen?I love the twist that there's a teenage assassin who loves high school movies. How many high school teens are there, who love all the spy / assassin stuff? A lot! This is definitely an interesting way to spin it.The writing of this movie wasn't the best. I only had Finnish subtitles so I might've missed a few puns because the translations were different of course. But like the plot? It has its strengths and it's easy and fun to watch but I've definitely seen better and worse movies. The writing in this film is barely decent, but Barely Lethal is still fun to watch when you know the tropes to both action and high school movies - and you know the main character has great knowledge of those high school movies. Barely Lethal is fun and has some interesting twists, but I wouldn't call it a good film. In my book it's above average, but mostly because of the humour and mostly female cast. It's worth watching, if you're into action comedies and high school movies, because if you hate either with a burning passion, you wouldn't enjoy this movie even a minute.

It's also very aware of 90s teen comedies and movies in general. Samuell L. Jackson might be the scariest, cutest drill Sergeant ever. A fine line he has to walk and he does a fine job. Jessica Alba seems to be content in playing smaller roles now (or at least that's what I've been seeing of her lately).The main focus lies on the teenage girl who's our main character and represents the more film educated younger audiences nowadays. That is played out well and what you can also like, is the fact that she's empowered and strong. Even though I also always say, it's just a movie, it's nice to create "role models" like that. Obviously I don't mean to be exactly like her, but to believe in yourself and go your way (something of a message this movie also has apart from just trying to be entertaining).