Synopsis
Nerdy high schooler Jerry Mitchell is assigned to write an article for the school paper about the infamous new delinquent transfer student, Buddy Revell. When Jerry accidentally invades Buddy's personal space and touches him, Buddy challenges Jerry to an afterschool fight in the parking lot, which Jerry tries to avoid at all costs.
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Cast
- Casey SiemaszkoJerry Mitchell
- Annie RyanFranny Perrins
- Richard TysonBuddy Revell
- Stacey GlickBrei Mitchell
- Jonathan WiseVincent Costello
- Jeffrey TamborMr. Rice
- Philip Baker HallDetective Mulvahill
- John P. RyanMr. O'Rourke
- Mitch PileggiDuke Herman
- Paul FeigHall Monitor
Recommendations
- 70
Los Angeles Times
A splashingly pleasant little surprise. - 50
Time Out
Joanou, later to find greater exposure with the concert picture U2 Rattle and Hum and the Oldman/Penn crime movie State of Grace, directs with a lot of energy, but the material just isn't there. - 50
Miami Herald
Three O'Clock High is one of those ideas that must have sounded wonderful at one point, and to be fair it still sounds better than the pop-out plots of most teen-explo projects. It turns out, however, to have surprisingly little range. Once the story is under way, there's nowhere for it to go but home room, lunch and out the door. [13 Oct 1987, p.C7] - 40
TV Guide Magazine
Obviously aware that he was hung out to dry with an awful script, director Phil Joanou tries to make up for this handicap with some startling camerawork. Much of it is overdone, but the result is one in which Joanou's visual style transcends the vapid script. - 38
Chicago Tribune
A director can get away with stick-figure characterizations in a 30-minute television show, but here it looks like he got Siemaszko to assume a browbeaten expression and Tyson to do his best imitation of a Neanderthal, then told them to "freeze" for the duration of the project. That may be filming, but it's not directing. - 38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Unfortunately, Siemaszko's performance is less tour-de-force than schtick-de-sitcom.[9 Oct 1987] - 30
The New York Times
The film jabs so relentlessly at the viscera that the audience is never allowed to notice anything independently; if Mr. Joanou wants you to spot a license plate, for instance, he drives the car right into a floor-level camera. - 25
Chicago Sun-Times
At the time, I was never interested in getting into a fight with the toughest kid in high school. And now that I'm not in high school, I am even less interested in seeing a movie on the subject, particularly a bad one.
