187 (1997)
Director Kevin Reynolds needs to just give it a rest. After such awful films Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Rapa Nui and Waterworld, it's quite mind-boggling that he would be allowed to direct again. But, alas, here he is again, but he still hasn't learned from his past mistakes.
Reynolds’s latest excursion is 187, which is essentially a plea to school kids to quit beating up on their teachers. What could have been an entertaining, tough, urban drama is reduced to highly pretentious goop. In fact, the confusing and badly written grand finale is so shameless in its attempts to "make a statement" while trying to illicit tears from the audience, that it easily negates any positive qualities the film may have previously achieved.
187 tells the story of one Trevor Garfield, played by the usually reliable, Samuel L. Jackson, a science teacher who is attacked and stabbed by a student who he is failing. Jump to 15 months later and Garfield moves to Los Angeles where he becomes a substitute teacher in a poor high school. Of course, he is immediately threatened by the local Latino gang led by the evil Cesar (played by Clifton Gonzalez Gonzalez, who wisely changed his screen name to Clifton Collins Jr.). Scene after repetitive scene depicts the battle of wills between Garfield and the thugs, marching predictably along a very familiar script trajectory.
Does any of this sound familiar? This story is a virtual carbon copy of the 1982 film Class of 1984, a cult fave which starred Perry King as a teacher who battles a group of outcasts in an inner city high school. Class of 1984 was a gritty and grimy movie that at least knew that it was basically an exploitive revenge flick and, therefore, it didn't take itself so seriously, 187 makes the mistake of wanting to be seen as a powerful, meaningful statement of ‘today's society’. Please. No amount of arch, lofty speeches can possibly mask the fact that this is just a tired retread of every bad Death Wish knockoff ever made. It's the kind of retread where once an animal or beloved pet is shown, you simply count down the minutes until that animal is slaughtered by the baddies.
The only real enjoyment is by waiting for the "good parts", the scenes where we get to see Garfield kick some gangsta ass. Unfortunately all of these scenes occur off screen, and the script leaves his guilt infuriatingly ambiguous.
The conclusion of this movie is particularly loathsome. Evil Cesar decides that the teacher must die! He breaks into Garfield's home, but instead of killing him as any bloodthirsty, revenge-minded gang member would do without a second thought, he subjects teach to a game of Russian Roulette (a la "The Deer Hunter"). This illogical finale only serves as an opportunity for Garfield to give yet another speech to try and "reach" his youthful captors. I won't say what happens next, but let's just say it's in equal measures implausible, irritating, and infuriating.
Kevin Reynolds isn’t entirely to blame for this movie's failure, some of should go to writer, Scott Yagemann. Before the end credits roll, a title card comes up to say that "This film was written by a teacher". Ooooh, I guess it's all so much more meaningful and deep than I thought. But if you ask me, the should get an automatic "F" for plagiarism.
Reynolds’s latest excursion is 187, which is essentially a plea to school kids to quit beating up on their teachers. What could have been an entertaining, tough, urban drama is reduced to highly pretentious goop. In fact, the confusing and badly written grand finale is so shameless in its attempts to "make a statement" while trying to illicit tears from the audience, that it easily negates any positive qualities the film may have previously achieved.
187 tells the story of one Trevor Garfield, played by the usually reliable, Samuel L. Jackson, a science teacher who is attacked and stabbed by a student who he is failing. Jump to 15 months later and Garfield moves to Los Angeles where he becomes a substitute teacher in a poor high school. Of course, he is immediately threatened by the local Latino gang led by the evil Cesar (played by Clifton Gonzalez Gonzalez, who wisely changed his screen name to Clifton Collins Jr.). Scene after repetitive scene depicts the battle of wills between Garfield and the thugs, marching predictably along a very familiar script trajectory.
Does any of this sound familiar? This story is a virtual carbon copy of the 1982 film Class of 1984, a cult fave which starred Perry King as a teacher who battles a group of outcasts in an inner city high school. Class of 1984 was a gritty and grimy movie that at least knew that it was basically an exploitive revenge flick and, therefore, it didn't take itself so seriously, 187 makes the mistake of wanting to be seen as a powerful, meaningful statement of ‘today's society’. Please. No amount of arch, lofty speeches can possibly mask the fact that this is just a tired retread of every bad Death Wish knockoff ever made. It's the kind of retread where once an animal or beloved pet is shown, you simply count down the minutes until that animal is slaughtered by the baddies.
The only real enjoyment is by waiting for the "good parts", the scenes where we get to see Garfield kick some gangsta ass. Unfortunately all of these scenes occur off screen, and the script leaves his guilt infuriatingly ambiguous.
The conclusion of this movie is particularly loathsome. Evil Cesar decides that the teacher must die! He breaks into Garfield's home, but instead of killing him as any bloodthirsty, revenge-minded gang member would do without a second thought, he subjects teach to a game of Russian Roulette (a la "The Deer Hunter"). This illogical finale only serves as an opportunity for Garfield to give yet another speech to try and "reach" his youthful captors. I won't say what happens next, but let's just say it's in equal measures implausible, irritating, and infuriating.
Kevin Reynolds isn’t entirely to blame for this movie's failure, some of should go to writer, Scott Yagemann. Before the end credits roll, a title card comes up to say that "This film was written by a teacher". Ooooh, I guess it's all so much more meaningful and deep than I thought. But if you ask me, the should get an automatic "F" for plagiarism.
