‘School for Scoundrels’ Download and Reviews

August 16, 2009 by Paul Wall  
Filed under Comedy, Romance

“School for Scoundrels” Movie Details

School for Scoundrels tagline: Too nice? Too honest? Too *you*? Help is on the way.
School for Scoundrels - DVD Cover

School for Scoundrels DVD Cover

Actors:
Billy Bob Thornton Dr. P
Jon Heder Roger
Jacinda Barrett Amanda
Matt Walsh Walsh
Horatio Sanz Diego
Todd Louiso Eli
Michael Clarke Duncan Lesher
Paul Scheer Little Pete
Joanne Baron Lois
Jon Glaser Ernie
Leonard Earl Howze Carl
Jim Parsons Class #8
Aziz Ansari Class #9
Remy K. Selma Class #10
Andrew Daly Class #11
Directors: Todd Phillips
IMDB Rating: 6.0/10 out of 14,536 votes

“School for Scoundrels” Movie Review

“School for Scoundrels” Plot Summary

A young guy short on luck, enrolls in a class to build confidence to help win over the girl of his dreams, which becomes complicated when his teacher has the same agenda. add synopsis

Fun to watch

There was a decent but not outstanding British comedy (1960) by the same name as this film, starring that great comic actor Alastair Sim, who also was wonderful as Scrooge in 1951’s Christmas Carol. It was based loosely (the books resemble self-improvement manuals) on Stephen Potter’s well-worth reading ‘One Upmanship’ and ‘Lifemanship’ books. Those hilarious best-selling books provide the reader with a guide as to how to use guile to get even with someone you identify as worthy of getting even with, or as Potter put it, ‘creative intimidation.’ To some extent the 2006 ‘School for Scoundrels’ could also be said to be based on those Potter books. While the original books and the 1960 film envisioned a small private college that taught the art of being one-up (if you are not one up, you’re one down), the 2006 version is a single self-improvement course taught secretly by a masterful rogue (Billy Bob Thornton) who calls himself Dr. P, to a group of low self-esteem ‘losers.’ His course resembles extreme confidence building sink or swim exercises more than one-upmanship. But he also goes one-on-one to put down the best of his students. It is explained that Dr. P is very competitive and shoots down anyone who might approach his level of skill. When facially challenged Roger (Jon Heder) unexpectedly is standing out as the best of his class, a one-upmanship contest between the master and the student gets underway

This is a fun film to watch; not at all sophomoric and not leaning on the slapstick approach. In addition to the two leads, the rest of the cast includes, among others, well known comic Sarah Silverman and comic actor Ben Stiller. Stiller is about as good as he gets (he is usually in films that are not my taste in comedy, although I recently saw him in something I really enjoyed.) On the other hand, the lines given to Sarah Silverman just make her character brassy rather than funny and are not up to the caliber of her stand-up comedy that she writes for herself.

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