To me, this movie is perfection.

Best movie of this year hands down!

Absolutely Fantastic

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

I sat through this movie because my wife wanted to watch it. She liked it? I thought it had an OK message for kids under 10. But for adults; terrible acting, silly plot, painful to watch to the end. I would rather have caught up on my sleep or been happier doing my taxes. Enough said.

It's a very entertaining comedy slash soul searching film. I cried through some of it. Ryan Reynolds plays a really hip teacher who really connects with his students and fellow teachers. He inspires them in a legendary way. There's an image of humanity, as it is and as it should be, that moved me so. The one big question Mr. D asks of his students is "how much time do we have?". The answer is not much. One learns that the little time that we have should be used to help others, to enlighten them, to have fun and share the knowledge to empower everyone, to make a better world for all. Hugely aspiring film. Good date film. Highly recommended for those who want to inspire. 9 out of 10 stars.

The average rating of 6.5 would have been what I would have guessed my review would be assuming it would be a decent movie. After watching the movie, I obviously felt differently. There are some areas which could have been improved... In some cases, some acting. The story (fate of Mr. D) was rather predictable. However, there were truly touching parts of the movie which makes the movie special. When you look at the reviews, you can see that the people who bothered to write a review all felt similarly about how they enjoyed the movie. In my case, I'm not a big Ryan Reynolds fan. I wasn't looking forward to some cool, smart-aleck character who all the students like, but he did a good job. In addition, I was impressed with Andrew Robb. Anyway, this movie is definitely worth a watch.

Norman Warner (John Astin) was a stellar instructor for a school system in a small city. But, after winning "teacher of the year" awards for years, he suffered a heart attack and died. His son, Matt (David Paymer) is a teacher, also, and has aspirations of his own to be a stand-out, trophy-winning class leader. But, his style is very different from his dad's, more "by the book" and few students really like him, including his own teenage son who attends the school. Then, too, the place just got a fabulous new teacher, Mr. DeAngelo (Ryan Reynolds) who makes history instruction come alive with many creative techniques. It would appear that Mr. D has much better chance of winning accolades, thus ruining the Warner family's long line of awards. Can you spell competition? Then, too, although a lovely young female teacher has a crush on Mr. D, he discourages her advances beyond friendship. Are there more secrets to tumble out? This was truly another good entry into the genre of "school movies", such as Dangerous Minds, School of Rock and the like. Alternating between upbeat and sad themes, it has some good lessons to convey. The cast is nice, with Paymer and Reynolds doing fine work as the principal actors, although initially it seems RR is all wrong for the part. The rest of the players do a nice job as well. Aiding in the film's success, too, are the attractive setting, costumes, camera-work, script and direction. In short, do go "back to school" and make time to view this sweet little winner. It has some hidden values behind its lighter moments.