MovieChat Forums > The Principal (1987) Discussion > The laugh out loud comedy of 1987!

The laugh out loud comedy of 1987!


Seriously what is this movie? It's an intense crime drama with serious inner city crime. Then the next second it's a barrel of laughs... I guess. What's the time if this flick?

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This movie is so bad it's good

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when the guy tries to stuff a bunch of stuff from the vending machine in his jacket..



🎄Season's Greetings!🎁🎅🎄

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shut up cellphone generation

"I fought your kind in the great war and we kicked the living *beep* out of you"

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It's Jim Belushi being funny and bad ass

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Yep, and it's awesome. I don't know if I will ever watch it again though. But I thoroughly enjoyed this flick.

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I'm going to need to track down a copy of this movie. The only time I watched it was back in the mid 90s when our substitute teacher showed it to us over the course of two days.

I can't imagine this being shown to a bunch of 13 year olds in school now, or the substitute teacher keeping their job afterwards.

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In the late 80's, this movie was a worse case of where things were going at the time. There was no tech like we have today, people actually got a punch in the mouth for saying something janky to someone else. This was an example of complacency of when people just let things unfold with no consequences to people’s actions. At the time gangs were a real thing and in some areas almost mob like where you would have been seriously cut, hurt, or even killed. This movie was not meant to be a comedy but a look at what could happen in some of the worst school systems in the USA's cities. The Bronx comes to mind back then as one of the worst with many other mentionable cities at that time. Jim Belushi of course was cast as a bad ass....but he still had his comedy roots strongly intact back then...so it was both a dark and "funny" flick at the same time.

I will say this as I've said to people around me and on other forums.... you cannot judge a movie like this by today's metrics....you just can't...the social structures, rules, and basic behavior has radically changed since this movie was released. Many ideologies have changed, viewpoints, vernacular and socially accepted practices.

The movie is what it is...and at the time...is was a great and powerful movie. I saw it when I was 15 years old when it was released...watched multiple times over my lifetime...even watching it today...with today’s Facebook/twitter/Instagram overlayed onto my life can immediately teleport back to that timeframe and recall all the emotions that this movie evoked. The movie was completely visceral with the clean up the trash of that generation and to finally put the foot down on that type of behavior... and many who grew up in that time frame can squarely relate.

On a side note: Remember National lampoon's vacation when they ask for directions in the "ghetto"? When they left, the car was jacked and picked by the same "type" of people the principal represents. It's a popcorn flick. Enjoy.

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