BARELY LETHAL is the new picture from Director Kyle Newman, best known for FANBOYS. It stars Hailee Steinfeld as a teenager who has been raised to be an assassin since birth and realizes that she's missing out on high school. When the opportunity presents itself on a mission, she goes AWOL, comes up with a phony foreign exchange program and heads for the high school experience.

 

The opening animated credit sequence is really fun and provides a lot of storytelling that sets up the premise very well. It's rare that we get story during opening credits and this was a very creative way to kick things off.

Hailee Steinfeld has come a long way from TRUE GRIT and is an adorable teenager who anchors the picture quite well as Megan Walsh AKA Agent 83. She is charming and eager to experience high school and all it has to offer. The sequence where she studies classic high school movies as research is particularly fun. And some of the payoffs where she uses her research in high school are highlights. It's also great to see a teenager actually playing a teenager in a high school picture.

 

Samuel L. Jackson plays Hardman, the head of the Prescott School that trains girls to be assassins. It's a pretty standard role for Jackson and he doesn't do anything noteworthy in it. 

 

It's fun to see Sophie Turner from GAME OF THRONES do more than play victim and she has a few fun moments in the picture as Steinfeld's rival. But unfortunately she doesn't have a lot to do and she's only notable here because she's Sansa Stark from GAME OF THRONES. Turner clearly has more to offer.

 

Jessica Alba plays the Big Bad in the story, Victoria Knox. She is not her normal wooden self and seems to be having fun with the role and brings some charisma to it. Sadly, she doesn't have very much screen time.

 

Thomas Mann plays Roger the AV Geek and he capably leads a cast of characters in the high school world that don't really do much but play their stock roles. Dan Fogler from Newman's FANBOYS shows up and just seeing him, you expect big laughs, but you only get a few. Mostly you get him desperately trying to be funny, especially in a recurring gag that wears out its welcome quickly.

 

Dove Cameron plays Liz, the daughter of the family with whom Steinfeld stays in the foreign exchange program. She detests Megan at first, but eventually they become partners in crime and Cameron brings a lot of the fun to the picture. 

 

Jason Ian Drucker as Parker, Liz's younger brother, brings a lot of laughs and is one of the most interesting characters, but he disappears for a lot of the picture and has very little screen time. That's a big disappointment. 

Steve-O from JACKASS has a cameo and he's not only hilarious, but he's also a surprisingly good actor confidently sharing the screen with Steinfeld and Jackson.

 

There are a few big problems with BARELY LETHAL. One is that it is not nearly funny enough. Screenwriter John D'Arco and Director Newman try for humor, but they miss way more often than they hit. Their cast is clearly capable, but they just don't have consistently great material to work from. It really makes you wonder if they studied those classic high school movies as well as Megan does.

 

Another problem is that they don't take the assassin side of the story very seriously. When we get to the climax of the movie and a fight between Steinfeld and Turner, it is very clear that the performers can't actually fight. The cinematography and editing is sloppy in order to compensate and is intercut with brief wide shots of their stunt doubles. It's a mess.

 

Then Steinfeld faces off with Alba and it's even worse and much more brief. In the Q&A following the screening, Newman explained that Steinfeld arrived a few days before production and there was no time for fight training. So she had to learn her fights in the morning on the day. And since Steinfeld was a teenager, her shooting days are limited. Clearly Newman was aware of all of this before production, yet he still tried to make these sequences work as planned. And they don't. I'm sure Newman knows of the classic RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK story where Harrison Ford was too sick to perform a huge fight sequence with the Swordsman. 

Spielberg had to think on the fly and came up with one of the most iconic movie moments of all time. I wish Newman had rethought these sequences and come up with something clever and smart that worked for his picture.

 

BARELY LETHAL is also a little too visually ambitious at times in the assassin world resulting in some cheap looking CGI shots.

 

And finally whoever is responsible for choosing the Homecoming dresses that Steinfeld and Cameron wear during the climax of the film should be shot. They are both attractive teens, but the dresses are just horrible and do nothing to compliment them. What a poor choice.

 

When I think about BARELY LETHAL, the picture that comes to mind is GROSSE POINT BLANK. It too was a mixture of comedy and action, but the action was treated seriously and that fight sequence in the high school hallway was amazing. I wish BARELY LETHAL had committed the way that picture did. And it didn't take away from the comedy, it just made for a better overall experience.

 

BARELY LETHAL is harmless fun and Hailee Steinfeld is so good in it that it's worth watching. I can't give it a high recommendation but if you like the premise and you enjoy high school movies, it's worth seeing.

REVIEW: "Barely Lethal" by Brian McQuery