High School High casts Jon Lovitz who works at a posh prep school where the headmaster is is father Jon Neville. Seeking a challenge he changes cultures from that world to inner city Marion Barry high school. It ain't what he's used to.

Still somehow he breaks through although God only knows how and principal's assistant Tia Carrere although what she sees in him we can only guess. But the story is far from ver.

The fabled Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Louise Fletcher is the principal of Marion Barry. Changing professions fro medicine to education hasn't changed her personality. You have no idea what she does for a sideline.

The comedy is low brow and lame. But at one point it becomes offensive. I don't think rape is really a subject for humor and when bad kid Guillermo Diaz tries to rape Carrere and the attack is fended off it wasn't al that funny. I don't think too many women would find it funny, in fact it's offensive.

This one is one to pass on.

The zany rude humor that whipped up gales of laughter in the riotous "Naked Gun" trilogy wanes in the shallow but mildly funny "High School High," a spoof of recent high school sagas such as "Dangerous Minds" and "The Substitute." Scenarists David Zucker of "Airplane," Robert LoCash of "BASEketball," and Pat Proft of "Brain Donors" aren't as successful with this half-baked entry. The comedy in "High School High" seems virtually colorless. Although it boasts more jokes per screen minute than "Airplane" and "Top Secret" or the "Naked Gun" trilogy, this production manages at least to amuse, even though it cannot intoxicate.

Weasel-faced comedian Jon Lovitz of "City Slickers 2") plays Richard Clark, a sympathetic but naïve educator who quits teaching history at a 'rich kids' academy to work in a poverty stricken ghetto school. Clark gets more than he bargained for at the inner city Marion Barry High School. No sooner has he climbed out of his car than the same vehicle mysteriously vanishes. Initially, Clark is blind to the rampant crime, gang, and drug problems afflicting the school. He is horrified to see Principal Evelyn Doyle (Louise Fletcher of "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest") hitting students with a baseball bat.

While Clark fumbles with his own foes, Griff McReynolds (Mekhi Phifer of "Clockers") is coming back to finish school after a year in juvenile detention. McReynolds wants to go straight, but a gang of drug runners refuses to let him off the hook. Before these bad boys can convert McReynolds to their cause, they have to discredit Clark. Word-plays and sight gags constitute the best of what little comedy punctuates "High School High."

The funniest scenes include a send-up of the Russian roulette duel in "The Deer Hunter," an attempted rape in the school library, and Clark's rain-splattered expulsion. Actor-turned-director Hart Bochner concerns himself more with the plot turns than the humor. Bochner doesn't develop his mise-en-scene as imaginatively as Zucker did in his "Naked Gun" movies. Zucker exploited every inch of a scene, with gags on the periphery.

When Bochner tries to imitate Zucker, he fails miserably at the task. Bochner shoots the background out of focus where the action occurs so audiences have a hard time spotting students failing down stairs because they wear their pants too low. Blaming Bochner entirely for these shortcomings in this marginal comedy would be to overlook the writers' slack contribution. Indeed, "High School High" features a couple of truly inventive gags, but the movie suffers because there is not enough funny stuff.

The writers stretch jokes and ides far beyond their limits, and "High School High" looks like a labored sit-com. The cast performs with deadpan brilliance, but their characters are rarely inspired or loony. Zucker, LoCash, and Proft should be ashamed that it took three of them to pen what little drivel "High School High" has.

I've seen the movie about nine or ten times, so naturally many of the jokes--which I found hysterical at first--aren't that funny anymore. But I don't think they could've done a much better job at spoofing high school flicks like "Dangerous Minds," "Lean on Me," "The Blackboard Jungle" and "To Sir, With Love." There are lots of witty moments that hit the bullseye.

The jokes are not over-the-top, nor are they filthy and vomit-inducing like many recent spoofs. It's from the writers of "The Naked Gun" and the talent really shows.

Jon Lovitz is funny, like usual. Tia Carrerre has never looked hotter, and serves as great eye candy. Louise Fletcher is appropriately creepy as the principal, who is sort of like a female version of Joe Clark--she also roams the hallways with a baseball bat.

The young stars like Guillermo Diaz, Mekhi Pfieffer, Natasha Gregson Wagner and Brian Hooks are very good and their timing is just right.

I would probably praise this movie a lot more if I submitted this comment after my first viewing, but trust me--it's very funny! But, like many broad comedies of this kind, it's not as enjoyable on repeat viewings. After having seen the latest spoof, "Not Another Teen Movie," I'm able to appreciate this film a lot more. This is a spoof with wit and structure, and even has a few subtle in-jokes: the school is titled Marion Barry High. You get it?

My score: 7 (out of 10)