Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999)

The poster for Teaching Mrs. Tingle may feature young TV cuties Katie Holmes (Dawson's Creek), Marisa Coughlin (Wasteland), and Barry Watson (Seventh Heaven), but the real star is the actress playing the title character: Helen Mirren. Mirren plays a bitter, tyrannical teacher who, due to circumstantial evidence, believes goody two-shoes Holmes is guilty of cheating on her history final. Holmes, Coughlin, and Watson go to Mirren's home to convince her that there's been a misunderstanding, but Mirren refuses to listen. Terrified that this will ruin her chances to go to college, Holmes and her compatriots knock Mirren out and tie her to her bed. Unfortunately, they haven't any idea what to do next; when Mirren awakes, the situation becomes a battle of wits in which the teenagers are hopelessly outmatched. Coughlin and Watson are pretty to look at and Holmes has some genuine talent and a lot of charm, but Mirren--who's played Shakespeare on the stage and been in movies ranging from lurid and trashy (Caligula) to eerie and arty (The Comfort of Strangers) to lurid, trashy, eerie, and arty (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover)--combines the cutting intelligence of Vanessa Redgrave, the steely will of Judi Dench, and a sensual energy that any young starlet would kill for. For fans of the British TV series Prime Suspect, in which Mirren plays the tough yet vulnerable Inspector Tennyson, this teen comedy-thriller is just an amusing footnote in Mirren's career; but if you've never been transfixed by this actress's mischievous sidelong glances, Teaching Mrs. Tingle might provide a good start. --Bret Fetzer Amazon.com

What every kid would love to do to a certain teacher.

This movie is truly great and Katie Holmes is at her best. I think that just about every kid in school would love to do what they did and I constantly watch it because it is a very good film in my opinion. March 31, 2008

Killing Mr. Griffin....oh wait, Killing Mrs. Tingle!

After Lois Duncan was disappointed that her teen suspense novel "I Know What You Did Last Summer" was turned into a "teen schlock film" it was highly doubtful that she'd give permission for film rights to Kevin Williamson again. So instead he just wrote it in his own words and called it "Teaching Mrs.Tingle". Anyone who read Duncan's novel can see that Williamson just stole her idea. It's even more obvious that it happened after she was unhappy of HIS treatment of her other novel. I remember seeing it in the theater so I could do a compare and contrast afterwards. The movie fails and just shoots for teen eye candy and cheap pop references that wre popular at the time that now look like dusty artifacts! March 18, 2008

A guilty pleasure and pure fun........a good rental!

Ok, so this isn't the greatest movie ever made, but who doesn't want to get back at an old teacher and blackmai them and tie him or her to a bed? Ok, well maybe just in my imagination...

Helen Mirren fabulously plays Mrs. Eve Tingle, a witch of a high school history teacher who loves to belittle her students and she is secretly jealous of them. Her preformance is worth the rental of this alone! She's great!

Katie Holmes playes Leigh Ann a hard-working than your average high school student who gets caught with her teacher's final examine in her bag given to her from her loser crush, Luke (who's is her best friends, Jo Lynn's boyfriend).

Leigh Ann, Luke, and Jo Lynn go to Mrs. Tingle's house to reason with her but things just get out of the hand and things get interesting! The best part of this movie is when Mrs. Tingle is tied to the bed! I love it!

A must see for any movie buff who likes Helen Mirren and/or teen flicks...
October 29, 2007

GREAT ENTERTAINING MOVIE WITH THE WONDERFUL HELEN MIRREN!!!!!

This is a greatly entertaining movie about the teacher you love to hate ~ with the wonderful and extremely talented Brittish actress Helen Mirren. It has a surprise ending too ~ to add to your viewing enjoyment. It is a must see ~ so buy it ~ you will not be disappointed!!!!!! October 2, 2006

Never quite accomplishes anything

This teen flick tries to be hip, tries to be suspenseful, and tries to be meaningful but never really attains any of these goals. When three young people kidnap their domineering teacher, the stakes could potentially be huge and traumatic, or just a lot of fun,but the screenwriter pulls back anytime viewers might start to care what happens, or might start to enjoy themselves.

In the Scream films, at any rate, the stakes were huge: Life or Death. In this film, thought they try to make you think the kids academic and career futures are at stake, it never quite rings true. Nor do any of the characters--who are all cliched and unlikeable. The scariest thing in the film (besides the whole premise) is the facile way they handle teen sex as just a consequenceless, "fun" thing. ONe of the characters loses her virginity to a guy her best friend likes and its handled as if she'd eaten the friend's last donut--a little annoying but no big deal. I'm not a prude, but this just seems wrong to me.

Hope they paid Mirren a lot to be in this film because it's a low point in her career as far as I'm concerned. Nothing could be lower in Katie Holmes' career than marrying Tom Cruise, so this may be a high point in her life.



August 5, 2006

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