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Overall Rating : 4/10
Directed By : Rospo Pallenberg
Brad Pitt (Babel)
Donovan Leitch (The Blob 1988)
Roddy McDowall (Fright Night)
Jill Schoelen (The Stepfather)
Supplied By : Lionsgate Films
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : October. 15, 2007
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| PLOT High school can be murder. Just ask Paula. Her over-protective father disappears during a weekend hunting trip. She's being romantically pursued by a creepy classmate, who recently graduated from a mental institution. Her jealous jock boyfriend is looking for any reason to release his juvenile rage. The lecherous school principal is after her tight student body; her friends and teachers are rapidly falling victim to a silent, shadowy mass-murderer. As the body count rises, Paula begins to suspect that any one of her reckless suitors could be the twisted killer. But unless she learns his identity soon, her high school education will quickly come to a very nasty end. |
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| THE REVIEW 1989's CUTTING CLASS is a sort of "whodunit" slasher film, who focuses on mainly one central character, Paula, has most of the film plays out from her perspective. Paula a young high school student, is having all kinds of relationship problems; Her Dad, gone on a hunting trip, leaves her to fend for herself, all the while keeping up with school, her Boyfriend Dwight, is the jealous type, and seems to always be in disagreement with her, part of the said problem is that Brian, a fellow student is also perusing her. But the problem with Brian is that he has just returned to school after a year absence, the reason being? Well he killed his father. So when the student body and the faculty alike begin to fall one by one, mystery surrounds Paula. Is Brian Woods, the once institutionalized teen, back to his old ways? Or is some else responsible for the murders. Before now, I had yet to see this late 80s slasher starring Brad Pitt in one of his earlier roles. I had always pondered with the idea of renting this, but this very fact turned me away from doing so. I'm not a really big Pitt fan, so with that in mind, I wasn't really enthused to see it, due to the fact that I knew Pitt would be "green", and even with his experience today, as I said, i'm not a fan to begin with, So now with me taking a look at CUTTING CLASS, I found out that it actually isn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it is indeed bad. It's main fault is it's bad in set up, it falls into the numerous and seemingly endless clichés, of all other slashers - it has someone creepy(in this case a Janitor), a perv(the Principal, whom also seeks to get a little action with our Heroine), a jaded Boyfriend, and even a nutcase with a history. With all of these characters present, there are the many setups that are intentionally aimed at trying to make us believe that these characters are the killer, they do this to be "clever" yet many of these setups, any witty viewer can see right through them. But I do have to say that CUTTING CLASS has to be possibly, the most predictable slasher film I have ever seen(and I have seen a lot.) By mid-film, or even earlier, CUTTING CLASS, becomes way to obvious as to what the outcome will be. It has absolutely no mystery to it or even suspense driving it, leaving the viewer utterly dumfounded - where are the guesses? The twists, the feeling, that a viewer has(well, in my case anyway) is not a feeling of being rewarded, but a feeling of being robbed of their time, and albeit brain cells. In this film, there is really nothing to be surprised with, or even think about, other things make the film worth watching however. Obviously Brad Pitt fans will watch, that's a given. But other than that I enjoyed the nostalgic feel and the cheesy setting in the school(in which other Slashers did this whole setting before CUTTING CLASS, so it was really nothing new anyway), and Although the outcome is a dead giveaway, some of the kills are ok. |
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| GORE
METER 4.5/10 Some of the special effects here are better executed than others. We have an impalement and an axe in the head, among other things. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 5/10 The film features a soundtrack of the type of tunes that seemed popular at the time the film was made. It was up-tempo, and somehow fits the film well. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM As I said, CUTTING CLASS is probably the most predictable slasher film I have seen, almost to the point that it's plot becomes, just stupid and pointless. There are a few things that make it worth watching at least once, but i'm not too sure how the film would hold up in multiple viewings. This DVD will be available on October 23, 2007 |
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