Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (film)
Not to be confused with the Australian TV show, Worst Year of My Life Again
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.png) Not even the Australian TV show can handle the worst years of their lives (no pun intended)
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Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life is a 2016 film based on the best-selling novel of the same name by James Patterson.
Plot
Rafe Katchadorian breaks ruled in school by unleashing pranks in order to get attention from students and principal Kevin Dwight. When the principal obeys students by giving rules, Rafe's friends, Leo and Jeanne have a diversion to break rules from the principal.
Rule-Breaking Qualities
- The movie's not all that faithful to the book, as it changes elements to it that winds up making it a cliché film where a trouble-making kid takes on a corrupted authority figure.
- The movie itself is a rehash of the three Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies (not the CGI movies), due to the characters featuring both live-action and hand-drawn designs.
- The hand-drawn designs are also a rejects from the show Kirby Buckets due to the main character's hobby of drawing sketches back to life.
- Most of the plot revolving around Principal Dwight and his status as the school principal makes no sense. The fact that he continuously makes up rules despite school principal's not being allowed to right their own rules, he destroys student's personal belongings, expels Rafe after he set off a false fire alarm as school principals don't have the authority to expel students, and there are plenty of kids with smartphones they can use to record his actions and report, it is never explained how he manages to keep his job despite these circumstances.
- Some of the movie's elements are very forced. Like the relationship between Rafe's mom and Carl. We never see anything deep about their relationship that makes sense to why Rafe's mom constantly brushes off the problems her kids have with him, and the realization she has about him being a selfish jerk at the end is very rushed.
- Rafe's rule breaking scheme is more based around pulling pranks rather than breaking the rules, and he doesn't really break that many rules like he did in the book.
- Most of the cast looks too old for their roles, especially the teenagers, like Griffin Gluck as Rafe and Thomas Barbusca as Leo since they looks more like high schoolers than a middle schoolers.
- Unlikeable characters like principal Kevin Dwight, Miller, and Bear.
- While the ending is heartwarming, it has a generic dance party ending trope where the sketches dance, Leo plays like a DJ, and Principal Dwight and Bear are imprisoned.
Good Qualities That Doesn't Broke the Rules
- Most of the acting is good. Even Andy Daly's over-the-top performance as Principal Dwight can be pretty funny.
- Miller becomes redeemed later in the second half where he and the others finally cooperate with Rafe to take Dwight down.
- Some pranks are enjoyable, such as the rainbow shower scene.
- The ending was heart-warming, though it had a generic dance party ending afterward.
Trivia
- While the title is based on the novel, itself references the 2013 Australian Children's show, Worst Year of My Life Again. However, it does not have any connections to the movie outside of the title itself.
Reception
The film received mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 63% approval rate from critics, but has no critic consensus yet.
Box Office
In the United States and Canada, Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life was projected to gross $8–10 million from 2,822 theaters during its opening weekend. It went on to open to $6.9 million, finishing 7th at the box office for its first weekend. It finished its theatrical run with a total gross of $23.3 million, making it a moderate success against its $8.5 million production budget.