Steve Pulaski The Perfect Score is a teenage heist film about a group of students who plot to break into the SAT headquarters to steal the answers of the test so they can all pass and continue on with their merry way. Their reason? They believe since the SAT creators don't play fair, they don't have to either.The students in the film make excellent points about standardized testing. One of the boys claims that they tell you from day one in school to be unique, but then they give you the same test, treating you all as the same students. Grades and GPA's don't matter come time for the ACT and SAT. You can be the best in your grade, and average student, or the class idiot and you'll get the same test.Irony stems from that, and the fact that you're being tested on all the things you'll most likely learn in College. Not to mention, the teachers and the school get money and more funding if they find out your school has the best test scores. It's a grade that defines you, and all also profits the school.Director Brian Robbins directed many early Nickelodeon shows such as All That, and one of my all time favorites, Kenan & Kel. He even was the man behind the camera in Good Burger, a childhood favorite of mine. He has his name on a lot of things I like, but if only The Perfect Score could add to that list.The story focuses on teens of all different stereotypes (the sports player, the outsider, the average kid, the below average kid, the good girl, and the stoner) who want to overthrow the system and sneak into the SAT headquarters, print the answers to the test, do well, and move on with their lives. They're heist becomes a lot more difficult when they realize they will have to fill out the answers one by one on the spot while trying to avoid getting caught. But in the end, they wind up learning something more about themselves and each other.It's a cute story, and it has certain ambition and appeal. But the characters never morph past their stereotypes like a film like this would suggest. One of the characters mentions The Breakfast Club, so now I feel obligated to compare it to that. In The Breakfast Club, the characters started out as stereotypes, but along the way, showed that they were more sincere than reality had made them out to be. It shows that the five kids in detention aren't as shallow as they seem.In The Perfect Score, the characters seem like they'll make progress and morph into better people, but it simply never happens. Everyone's likable, everyone's young and vibrant, but the overall effect is underwhelming at best. Not to say some scenes aren't enjoyable or some characters are poorly written, but the storyline is sketchy, believability is slim, and the optimism turns into dead dreams. It's one of those teen films where after you watched it, you feel like you watched it. Not like you lived or relived it.Starring: Erika Christensen, Chris Evans, Bryan Greenberg, Scarlett Johansson, Darius Miles, and Leonardo Nam. Directed by: Brian Robbins.

bkoganbing Six anxiety ridden teens, Chris Evans, Erika Christenson, Leonardo Nam, Darius Miles, Scarlett Johanssen and Bryan Greenburg are having panic attacks over the impending Scholastic Aptitude Tests aka the infamous SAT which will determine whether you go to an Ivy League School or MacDonald clown college. Don't tell them anything different.What to do but hatch a plan to steal the answers and get The Perfect Score which will put you on the path to fame, glory, and riches, whatever priority you have.The Perfect Score is a new millennial version of The Breakfast Club and it even has the same number of troubled youth who spent that afternoon in detention discovering themselves. It's not as serious ultimately as The Breakfast Club was, but at least this one included a black and Asian teen in the mix.Although Chris Evans and Scarlett Johanssen have gone on to have the most substantive careers at this point, the best in the film hands down is Leonardo Nam. He's the perpetually stoned one who is the most underachieving in the class, but he turns out to be the one who makes lemonade with lemons life hands him. Nam is also interesting in that he's the one who seems to be rebelling against an Asian stereotype in that those young people are the smart overachievers. In any event he steals every scene he's in.The Perfect Score is a nice teen comedy about six unlikely people who bond together in an objective and develop relationships and aspects of their character they never thought to have possessed.

James Hayes-Bohanan, Ph.D. I did well on the SATs, but I do not consider them fair. The first part of this film does a good job describing the problems with the SATs -- and with high-stakes tests in general. I am a college professor who sees standardized testing as very problematic; this film does a great public service by challenging the prevailing wisdom on testing.The film seems to begin as a protest movie, with the students motivated by their righteous indignation to undermine the SAT. Once they get organized, though, they seem to forget this motivation, and this devolves into a fairly mediocre -- if diverting -- teen/adventure flick.I would like to see the first 30 minutes remade as a documentary; I would show it to my students and colleagues. Fairtest.org is a good place to learn more about the corrosive effect of these tests, by the way.

shanfloyd Six students plan a heist operation to steal the answers of their upcoming SAT... the plot is simple and definitely not that original. The characters are quite stereotypical, they speak predicted dialogues and their actions don't prove any innovation of the screenwriters. Still, this movie produced by MTV doesn't appear as boring, irritating or silly. On the other hand it has some occasional funny moments like Francesca as Trinity in her daydream etc.The cast is actually the main reason I watched this film. Scarlett Johansson looks great and pulls off a nice professional performance. Erika Christensen and Chris Evans are also there but I didn't recognize the other guys. The bottomline is that I didn't really think this movie is bad at all... it's a fine one to watch in a relaxed mood.