Charlie Bartlett
Charlie Bartlet: Misunderstood and peculiar rich kid gets expelled from private school and has to fit in at a public school; 0 points for originality. Then come the cast, and eclectic cross-section of pupils: suicidal goth, slutty cheerleader, bonehead bully… again 0 points for originality. Bartlett himself is quite corny, his love interest (Kat Dennings) is appears to be incapable of conveying any emotion but Downy Jr is good to watch and unexpectedly calm – until he gets the typical ‘crazy man’ scene. My biggest problem was that this tried to cover too many themes: depression, rebellion, love, parents, popularity, growing up and all the rest but instead of being neatly wound together they were separated and covered 5 minutes at a time. It’s also got one of the most gratuitous boob-shots in history. Nowhere near the same league as the School/Teen movies: Napoleon Dynamite, American Pie, Ferris Bueller, Fast Times, Mean Girls, Superbad, Rushmore… Reasonably forgettable MTV movie-type affair.
Score: 4/10
Paragraph Film Reviews 
I had soo wanted to watch this. I had somehow thought it was a Ferris Buller/Igby Goes Down. But what a disappointment. Like you said, they covered soo many themes….and none done well. There’s just not enough quirk and dark humour…and with whatever it had…it never managed to hit the right comedic note to be the movie it seem to strive to be. Luckily I watch it on a rental.
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Yea, it popped up on my Amazon recommendations so was tempted to buy but got it from my local library. Don’t think I’ll remember much of this film in a few weeks time. Thanks for stopping by.
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See, this is why I don’t review films… I have too soft of a heart! I completely agree with your review but not sure I would give it an F—–. :)
Keep up the good work, my friend!
P.S. Is your pic from The Fall?
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What a softie – best stick to being King of the Lists then! :D
And yes, my pic’s from the fall. ‘shopped it on to a pseudo piece of film reel from a google image search.
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I will. and Thank You! :)
BTW, can’t find that film anywhere. Gonna have to suck it up and buy it on Amazon or something!
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