It's a bad movie

I watched this because I heard it was written by John Hughes' son. I wasn't expecting a movie like John's stuff though. I figured he probably didn't want to write anything that was similar to his father's work and he succeesed in that. Unfortuantely it wasn't a very good movie.

First off the director dropped the ball big time with casting. The rest of the cast it fine, but Maddox was miscast and it's one of the reasons the movie didn't work. The problem was that Maddox was a pretty unlikable character. And casting an actor who not only looked like he was a villain, but also didn't show an real range. He played the character the same way throughout the movie. If you would've gotten an actor with some charm it would've changed the movie a lot.

As for the story, I just didn't get it. I mean obviously Maddox was a little insane and never talked to Stanton. He was basically a red herring in a way. Although, I didn't get the whole thing with Stanton escaping with other patients.

I just felt like the whole New Youth thing was kind of stupid. I didn't really see the point. I could see if because of the incident, the school was really strict and teacher on edge and all. But I'm sure most of the teacher were nice. I just didn't see the point of what they were doing. Also it made no sense that the principal didn't know who was behind it, but Maddox blew the whistle that made all the kids leave. So it would've been obvious he was the guy behind it. And there was no way every kid in school would've left. You would've had some kids too scared to leave, fearing they's get in trouble.

I just think the plot was so weak and you had to suspend so much disbelief that it killed the movie. And ending the movie as they did was a cop out. Maddox would probably have been arrested. he would've been kicked out of school for sure or at least have been forced to see a shrink before being allowed back in school.

A movie like Pump Up the Volume was a way better movie, with the same sort of vibe.