
How can one start again in their senior year of high school? By going to another school of course. He accomplishes this feat by getting himself expelled from his first school, a task that is harder than he thought it would be and fertile ground for some sophomoric humor. At the next school, he changes his name to Gil Harris, takes down the toughest guy using some prison yard fighting technique, and becomes "king of the hill." He finds a new romantic interest in Danielle (Eliza Dushku).

The premise of The New Guy reminded me of another TV film, Student Exchange from a while back. In that film, two students make a break with their past by pretending to go to Europe, and returning to their school as Italian exchange students. Student Exchange had far more depth and better characters. In The New Guy, the characters are all typical teen film unidimensional affairs- the jock, the tough guy, the cheerleader, so on and so forth with all of the depth of a Hollywood movie facade.
While The New Guy does have its moments, the film is too simple for my taste. Best suited to a teenage audience, it lacks more widespread appeal.
Overall Grade: C
--Jonas
No comments:
Post a Comment