Barely Lethal review: Despite it’s very different twist, Barely Lethal turns out to be just another teen movie.
Barely Lethal review
Barely Lethal is the brand new movie from director Kyle Newman, who you may remember brought us that really rather good Fanboys a few years back – the film about the young guys that want to break into George Lucas’ home to screen The Phantom Menace? I really liked that. Following on from Fanboys, Newman worked on The Crazies TV show, and another couple of shorts projects before landing the gig to direct Barely Lethal, which can only be described as a cross between Mean Girls, Spy Kids, and well, Kingsman.
Scripted by John D’Arco, the film revolves around the character of Megan Walsh (Hailee Steinfeld), an orphaned teenager who was brought up by Samuel L. Jackson‘s Hardman, a mysterious figure who runs an organisation called the Prescott School for Girls, which basically exists to turn young children into spies. When Walsh starts to realise that there is a whole other world out there that she hasn’t had the opportunity to experience, she fakes her own death in order to enroll in a student exchange program to try out life in a traditional American high-school.
Barely Lethal review
Barely Lethal is a film that is obviously targeted to a very specific audience, so it’s no surprise that I struggled to get into this ninety-minute journey of tedium. The script fails to build on a relatively good idea of a lonely girl actually wanting to go to high school after learning all about it through the likes of Mean Girls and Beverly Hills 90210, and then finding being a teenage so much harder than being an international super-spy. It is very clichéd, uses every trick in the teen-movie and indeed spy-movie book, but does have a couple of stand-out moments, particularly the scenes involving Steinfeld and Jackson, which we’ve come to expect. Having said all of that, it’s totally harmless and flows at a steady pace throughout.
The movie boasts a really strong cast in Jackson, Steinfeld, Jamie King (who is married to director Newman), Jessica Alba, Game Of Thrones‘ Sophie Turner, and the brilliant young actor Thomas Mann, who will be seen in next week’s big UK release Me and Earl and The Dying Girl. While most of the aforementioned are seemingly in it for the money, there are some really good little performances, particularly from Steinfeld, who is upping her game following that impressive debut in the Coen brothers’ True Grit, through to this year’s Pitch Perfect 2. Though, there is a scene which features Jackass star Steve-O as Jackson’s henchman Pedro, which could have gone either way – cinematic gold or cinematic slop. Sadly, it was the latter.
Barely Lethal is a fairly average teen movie, but it’s great to see Newman, D’Arco and co. attempting to mix things up with something a little bit different.
Barely Lethal review by Paul Heath, August 2015.
Barely Lethal is released in selected UK cinemas and on-demand from Friday 28th August 2015.
