CUTTING CLASS (1989)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Jill Schoelen is Paula Carlson, a high-school teenage girl who is being sought by two guys at school. Basketball high-school star Dwight (Brad Pitt) wants Paula in bed - are they going steady or not? Who knows. Former mental patient Brian (Donovan Leitch, Jr.) was once Dwight's best friend, but he may also want to get down and dirty with Paula. Or does he? Who can tell with all those endless menacing stares except, after a while, the stares become monotonous and laughable. Martin Mull is Paula's father who is attacked and practically left for dead, dragging himself from end of a marsh to another. And let us not leave out the late Roddy McDowall as a teacher who also has the hots for Paula.
"Cutting Class" has one murder that is certainly clever in its visual design - it takes place in a gym and has been mentioned in the slasher film annals of blood and gore murders. The rest of the movie is a slow-moving bore that is choppily edited and completely lacking in rhythm. It feels like leftover 80's slasher nonsense featuring a bloodless cast and intrinsically bloodless direction by Rospo Pallenberg (who wrote two decent films, "The Emerald Forest" and "Excalibur"). Jill Schoelen practically walks through this movie, getting by on her cheerleader looks and her tush (a waste of a good actress). Brad Pitt merely exists as eye candy, though he shows some passion when getting his head stuck in a vise. The whodunnit of new murders at the school can be seen a mile away (hate to give it away but just think about the season of the witch). This movie makes me wonder just what the filmmakers intended - its purpose is nonexistent.
