Review of Barely Lethal (2015) by Leon B — 31 Oct 2015

Review:

I stupidly rented this movie because I thought that it was going to be another Kick Ass/Scott Pilgrim type movie but it basically turned out to be about a teenage girl going to college. BORING! There are some other elements to the storyline which would have been interesting if the director would have stuck to the plot from the beginning but it drifts off to be a cheesy and uninteresting film. Anyway, it's about a young girl called Megan Walsh (Hailee Steinfeld) who, from a young age, attends an elite school for special ops agents. With Hardman (Samuel L. Jackson) looking over her shoulder while she is going through some gruesome training, she craves for a normal teenage life and she spends her nights watching TV shows and reading teenage magazines. Hardman knows that she is the best agent in her group, so he sends her on a exclusive mission to take-down Victoria Knox (Jessica Alba), who is a intelligent arms dealer. Whilst on the mission, she fakes her own death and she applies to live with a family as an exchange student. This is when the movie switches to a everyday college movie! She then finds it difficult to fit into everyday life but with the help of her new found friend, she soon settles down and she finds a potential boyfriend who is the lead singer in a popular band at school. It doesn't take long for her past to catch up on her and Victoria Knox manages to track her down and threatens to ruin her new life. It must have looked good on paper but on screen, it's really not that good. The girl who was playing the lead, was definitely not special ops material and the whole American, teenager at college concept has been done to death. She goes through the usual elements that a teenage girl goes through at school like; fitting in, finding a boyfriend, going to prom, and making friends so the whole concept fell flat once she left the agency. The couple of action scenes weren't bad and the few scenes with Jessica Alba and Samuel L. Jackson were OK but the rest of the film was a waste of time. The director tried to make the ending interesting by hinting that there might be a sequel but after the poor box office takings and terrible critics reviews, I'm sure that this project won't be brought to the big screen again. It might make a decent TV series though! Terrible!

Round-Up:

The director, Kyle Newmarket, 39, had the makings of a good film because he had a good cast to work with but he made a right mess of it. Other titles to his name are the Hollow and Fanboys, starring Seth Rogen but apart from that, he's only directed the comic version of Spartacus, the Crazies TV series and a documentary on Taylor Swift. You can definitely tell that he lacks experience whilst watching the film because there was no originality to the project and it just seemed like he had watched too many John Hughes movies. Anyway, you might recognise the girl who played the lead, Hailee Steinfeld, 18, from her brilliant performance in True Grit. She's also starred in the Homesman which was directed by Tommy Lee Jones, 3 Days to Kill with Kevin Costner, Begin Again, Romeo & Juliet, Enders Game, which was a disappointing film starring Harrison Ford and Pitch Perfect 2. She wasn't the best choice to play a special ops agent but her acting style worked when it came to the whole "teenager at college" part of the movie. It's just a shame that the director wasted the good cast and he didn't put the budget to good use.

Budget: N/A.

Worldwide Gross: $6,000 (Terrible!).

I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/adventure/comedies starring Jaime King, Samuel L. Jackson, Jessica Alba, Hailee Steinfeld and Sophie Turner. 2/10.