Kids in America (2005)

"Kids In America" presents the experiences of young people in modern-day America. Set in the fictional Booker High School a diverse group of students are tired of seeing their freedoms taken away by the school administration so they band together and change their world by empowering themselves and their community to protect freedoms of expression and speech.System Requirements:Running Time: 91 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG UPC: 025192991820 Manufacturer No: 29918 Product Description

Extremism in the defense of liberty is, in fact, a vice...

Borderline propaganda thinly disguised as entertainment... This movie is so preachy and politically heavy-handed, that after watching it you'll feel like you've been socked in the jaw by Michael Moore.

The gist of the movie is that the "hero" kids want to dictate how and what they're taught in school, particularly regarding sex education. Sort of defeats the purpose of education if the kids are so convinced they already have all the answers, but this irony/hypocrisy is apparently lost on the filmmakers. The kids go to such obnoxious extremes to enforce their will on the school administration, that it's hard to imagine that any objective viewer will still be rooting for them by the end of the movie, and yet that is clearly the filmmakers' deluded intention. I found myself rooting for the "evil" high school principal. I wonder if the filmmakers would be proud that I rebelled against their establishment, or disturbed that I chose the "wrong" side.

Some of the things held up as liberties are so laughably absurd, that it makes the kids look more stupid than bravely idealistic. (Pretending to commit suicide during a school talent show is a constitutional right? Seriously?) As one might expect, this movie follows the disturbing trend of portraying all kids as good and wise and most adults (expect for those that agree with the kids, of course) as bad and buffoonish. The characters are all one dimensional. The "antagonist" adults are portrayed as having no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

This movie was "inspired" by actual events. Somehow, I have the feeling that the "real" kids probably did have a legitimate gripe against an overbearing principal. However, the kids in the movie are so blindly convinced that they are right and everyone who disagrees with them is wrong, that they elicited no empathy from me at all.
July 19, 2007

People Become What They Hate

A movie that champions freedom of speech for Bigots as the only freedom they promote is freedom for themselves but not for any who has different points of view...This piece of piled on propaganda is uneven and a great example of card stacking argumentation....It is the usual technique of like minded folks to portray anyone who disagees with them as totally stupid and evil...
First of all it portrays a crowd of conformists..Whenever ever everyone thinks a lot...NO ONE THINKING...
These are the same people who would shout down any conservative speaker who might appear on their campus...I taught school for years and these are not typical high school kids....
What 'principles/" did these infant minds brains champion? Drugs, homosexuality, free sex on demand...No counter arguments are given any space...
These 'champions of freedom?' would protest against any science teacher who would offer arguments championing the theory of creation science, any stuent starting a Bible club, the formation of ROTC classes...
These are examples of the people who have controled our culture since 1963 and helped to champion new sexually transmitted diseases, 40% of children being born to unwed mothers, increased drug use, ignorance of American history, falling graduation rates....
THE SLOGAN OF THE PEOPLE WHO CREATED THIS TRASH....
FREEDOM OF 'ME' BUT NOT FOR 'THEE'...Jack Schlatter June 22, 2007

"You're so gay, Cher wears YOUR clothes"

Yes, it's some of the jokes like the one in the title that do sort of mar this otherwise brilliant, quick paced movie that pulls out all the stops to make its' point. Like the slightly smarter and more realistically presented Pump Up the Volume, Kids in America delves deep into the root of a major issue, a principal who has nothing but her own interests and future as a superintendant in mind. Unlike Pump whose high school population only really becomes active at the end, Kids' high school's students get involved right away. Throughout the movie they create some positive havoc in some truly jaw dropping ways. At the end, we hear our head revolutionary offer us "So, did we change the world? If not, its still early in the week" and yes, it seems that a phrase such as this is a perfect way to end this all too short film. They may have just got the ball rolling, which is exactly as it should be. There is work to be done in this fashion within schools all across America.We send our kids to these learning institutions every day. So as you watch Kids in America, take the cheesy jokes in stride and see the hugely important issues presented. You'll be glad you did. January 13, 2007

Kids in America

I loved this movie
I am huge fan of Julie Bowen and she was fantastic in the movie

Also the cast of students were really GREAT

The movie was a lot of fun for me and the commentary track made it worthwhile to own rather than to rent January 9, 2007

good drama,.. not a comedy as the case suggests.

I think maybe the film studio at the last second wanted to attempt to sell this film as an "american pie". It's sad because this film is not about laughing at potty humor. It's about the never ending fight against tyrannical conservatism. Only the fight here is set in a high school. Based on real life events where students were suspended or expelled from school for no valid reason. (such as giving out condoms or expressing themselves in non-conservative ways.)

Despite the unfunny jokes that were probebly injected by the end of production to sell it as a comedy,.. this is an enjoyable film with the students sticking it to the ( beautiful, oddly casted) ice queen principal.

But for me this film had the shiny jewel of an adorable unknown actress Stephanie Sherrin (playes the cute red-head and romantic interest of the male lead character.) I couldn't take my eyes off of her.

The five or six minute long kiss scene during the credits is cool too. August 20, 2006

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