Bad Reputation (2005)

I love this movie so much

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Finally, another slasher film for revenge!! I give this movie thumbs up. It's weak and strong in many areas, but it's better than most of the lame films that come out for teens for the 21st century. The acting reminds me of 80's type but more updated for the time frame it came out, yet similar to I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE and other classic horror movies. Not saying the film is perfect or a copycat ... but it's not bad for some debut film for such a hot messy topic. Rape exists everywhere: in high school and in college. The rape scene is very familiar to many girls who have undergone such traumatic experience in reality (on or off campus). The cliques of these ugly groups fits the "T" of any American typical high school group. I watched this on Hulu for the first time and was laughing yet emotional at the same time for such bad ass kids who think they truly rule. Or the fact that this girl was screwed with in many tormenting ways, that any teen can definitely relate to. Good anger and aggression! And I appreciate the fact that this film gets back at men - - especially with the penis slashing. Women are always depicted as rape victims and never fight back. Well, in this case she does. And it's great to see another cheap horror film do well in such arena with feelings & emotions. I watched the entire film and new it was cheesy. If you think back to old movies like bad acting in Halloween or any other cheese-ball slasher flick, bad acting will always exist to a degree but it wasn't all that bad in BAD REPUTATION. The characters were well developed, and I could see the points in between where during takes (laughter or humor slipped in) - - but all low budget films start out as such. Laugher is the best medicine. So thumbs up! I laughed. Better than watching THE RING or some other gay horror flick.If you want a cheesy film to watch with friends, then this is it. Grab your popcorn and beer and laugh. But as you watch and are drawn into the film, the topics are well picked and make you think in the end - - AND during the movie. And this is obviously what the writer / director intended and managed to show on the silver screen. :-)

and then takes a bad turn. This is a "high-school revenge movie" that more or less follows the template established by "Carrie" and "Christine," although without the supernatural business. Still, the idea is the same: a harmless nerdy wallflower gets used and abused by the popular kids, turns the tables and wreaks vengeance on her persecutors, and then becomes so power-mad that she destroys herself. The idea has been used so many times that its become almost mythic, and a number of movies know how to use it. In the first half of the movie, writer-director Hemphill (despite the obvious limitations with acting talent) gets it mostly right: he makes you identify with sweet Michelle, the Henry Miller-reading outcast who gets raped and humiliated at a party and so badly slandered at school that even the guidance counselor hits her up. Hemphill doesn't exploit her rape the way a lot of movies in the 1970s and 1980s might have, with a lot of boob and butt shots, where the rape becomes a kind of vicarious thrill for the audience. Instead, he makes it ugly, and then further ratchets up the collective audience hatred for the perps by adding insult to injury, as both the rapists and their snotty, viciously cliquish girlfriends conspire to trash Michelle's rep at school. All fine and good, because you know there is going to be a payoff, that these jerks and bitches will pay for this sins. Unfortunately for the audience, Michelle goes overnight from being sympathetic victim to inhuman monster. Sure, you want the bad guys painfully punished, but what we get is just prolonged torture -- which is torture is sit through. It's unpleasant, disgusting, ugly, and a lot less fun than it sounds. (Although it was kinda funny to watch her bash one guy with a textbook so badly that blood spattered the walls. Was this one of those switchblade-wielding history books?) "Heathers" (from which it borrows freely) got away with a lot of the same material because it was more capably written and wickedly funny. Here you just have the increasingly unlikable Michelle wearily rampaging her bloody way through the student body, all but leaving aside any question of how she manages to get away with it. I guess part of the reason is that her town has, by my count, only two police officers, who only appear for a couple minutes and ask maybe one question. Also, Michelle is apparently an expert at cutting up and disposing of the body of a guy she kills in her own bedroom. No, I guess you shouldn't demand that much of movies as low-budget as this one. Writer-director Hemphill certainly didn't.

Oh my gosh! The other reviewers MUST have worked for this absolutely terrible, terrible film. It is badly written, horribly acted, completely weaseled out plot and was there a director? God let's hope not because he was worthless! Did they spend all of a hundred bucks on this thing? The dialog never moved above trite. And good God man hire an actual sound person. Grammar school kid you-tubes flicks had better sound.The lead wasn't actually that bad an actress. But even when you look pretty good covered in crap, all anyone remembers is the crap. This is a lesson to all actors, just because you were offered a lead role, doesn't mean you really want to be in the film.

A shy girl gets invited to party by a jock, just to get raped by him and his friends. The jock's girlfriends are too dumb to accept that she's a victim and start branding her as a slut at the school. There's gonna be hell to pay. Basically, this is Carrie on a budget. It would be quite good, were it not for the unsubtle interpretation of the lead actress, whose character development is too extreme and rushed to help with her already limited acting abilities. She's never believable and as a result, it's impossible to root for her and relish her murderous ploy for vengeance. The supporting players, though, are almost all uniformly good, and help carry the movie to completion. A curiosity.