I think my review title says it all about the James Belushi starring film, The Principal. It's yet another of those Blackboard Jungle inspired films now updated to the Reagan Era.
Belushi's a teacher with a really lousy personal life and after beating up on his ex-wife's boyfriend and trashing the car of same, he gets to spend a night in the clink. It's a good thing that teachers have some strict tenure rules or I'm sure he'd have been history and not taught it any more.
Anyway even though he can't be fired without all kinds of rigmarole he can sure be transferred from his nice suburban school to one toilet of a school in inner city Oakland. So Belushi's off to Brandel High School which is run by drug dealer Michael Wright and he's only got school custodian Lou Gossett, Jr. as an ally.
The teachers aren't crazy about him, they keep an uneasy truce and try to teach the ones that want to learn. One of them, Rae Dawn Chong is hostile, but she gradually converts.
Belushi's under pressure from above, he has to succeed or they will go through the laborious process of getting rid of him. Turns out he might just be what Brandel High needs.
Belushi and Gossett have a nice chemistry in their scenes together. Esai Morales is strangely underused, I have a feeling a lot of his performance was left on the cutting room floor. My favorite however is Jacob Vargas, a kid that both Chong and Belushi take an interest in.
The Principal is in a long line of similarly themed films from The Blackboard Jungle to Dangerous Minds. Entertaining enough with a lot of action for a school based film.
Belushi's a teacher with a really lousy personal life and after beating up on his ex-wife's boyfriend and trashing the car of same, he gets to spend a night in the clink. It's a good thing that teachers have some strict tenure rules or I'm sure he'd have been history and not taught it any more.
Anyway even though he can't be fired without all kinds of rigmarole he can sure be transferred from his nice suburban school to one toilet of a school in inner city Oakland. So Belushi's off to Brandel High School which is run by drug dealer Michael Wright and he's only got school custodian Lou Gossett, Jr. as an ally.
The teachers aren't crazy about him, they keep an uneasy truce and try to teach the ones that want to learn. One of them, Rae Dawn Chong is hostile, but she gradually converts.
Belushi's under pressure from above, he has to succeed or they will go through the laborious process of getting rid of him. Turns out he might just be what Brandel High needs.
Belushi and Gossett have a nice chemistry in their scenes together. Esai Morales is strangely underused, I have a feeling a lot of his performance was left on the cutting room floor. My favorite however is Jacob Vargas, a kid that both Chong and Belushi take an interest in.
The Principal is in a long line of similarly themed films from The Blackboard Jungle to Dangerous Minds. Entertaining enough with a lot of action for a school based film.