If there is a single most outstanding thing about Hollywood film-making is the insane watchability of even the most wretched projects like UNDERCLASSMAN. If you try to dissect UNDERCLASSMAN then it is an unbearably derivative undercover cop flick which borrows heavily from BEVERLY HILLS COP politics, 21 JUMP STREET appeal and most apparently POINT BREAK's plot. Kathryn Bigelow POINT BREAK is one of the most potent undercover cop flicks in history. Even though it's mot some textbook example that you can derive from. Well, in UNDERCLASSMAN, a huge chunk of the structure and character chemistry was taken from POINT BREAK. The friendship between the young cop and the main suspect, the arrest of some other undercover DEA agent, the red herrings and the analysis of the timeline, it was all transplanted from POINT BREAK. I feel it would it would be right if Miramax paid some royalties to the people who made it.
Talented music video director Marcos Siega (Weezer, blink-182) who kicked off with PRETTY PERSUASION, got attached in order to infuse this flick with some life. He failed. So did the screen writing team of Wagner and Goldberg who wrote a great high school romcom THE GIRL NEXT DOOR and seemed capable of refreshing the genre. But even they place very few and far between flourishes in the script.
This is film is a failure for all concerned.
However, it is insanely watchable. I loathed it, noticed shameless rip-offs, felt ashamed of myself for renting it, but still, I kept watching it, up until the end credits. I must admit that. Siega and the writers made it slick enough to swallow. That is craft I can't deny. And that's about it.
Talented music video director Marcos Siega (Weezer, blink-182) who kicked off with PRETTY PERSUASION, got attached in order to infuse this flick with some life. He failed. So did the screen writing team of Wagner and Goldberg who wrote a great high school romcom THE GIRL NEXT DOOR and seemed capable of refreshing the genre. But even they place very few and far between flourishes in the script.
This is film is a failure for all concerned.
However, it is insanely watchable. I loathed it, noticed shameless rip-offs, felt ashamed of myself for renting it, but still, I kept watching it, up until the end credits. I must admit that. Siega and the writers made it slick enough to swallow. That is craft I can't deny. And that's about it.