This film begins with a California high school teacher by the name of "Rick Latimer" (James Belushi) getting drunk in a bar and then demolishing a car in the parking lot with a baseball bat. Needless to say, this embarrasses the school board who subsequently call him in and-offer him a promotion as a principal. The catch is that the high school they want him to take over is the worst in the entire city. Recognizing that he has very little choice, Rick belatedly accepts the job. What he doesn't realize, however, is just how bad this school really is and so, with nowhere else to go, he decides to clean up the school-or die trying. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was a good movie which suffered from some extremely unrealistic scenes here and there. That being said, I liked the fatalistic sense of humor which James Belushi used to great effect and seemed so natural on his part. Likewise, I also liked the performances of Louis Gossett Jr., Rae Dawn Chong and to a lesser extent that of Kelly Jo Minter. Again though, this is not a very realistic movie and for that reason I have rated it a little lower than several other viewers. Average.
Review of The Principal
