There's a Breakfast Club reference early on in The Perfect Score, and leaving it in was a terrible mistake. Along with borrowing liberally from Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven remake, the only thing The Perfect Score has going for it is a severe case of John Hughes envy. Except this movie is lifeless. And it's got no Anthony Michael Hall.

The Perfect Score follows six high school seniors looking for a way to offset their youthful GPA indiscretions and poor test-taking ability by stealing answers from the SAT board. There's the "average kids," the "brain," the "basketball player who needs a good score to get into a school so he can play basketball;" you know, the kind of easily identifiable stereotypes we've come to expect from brain-dead teen comedies like this for years.

Precisely two things happen in this movie: The kids decide (after what seems like an hour of angst-filled agonizing) to try to steal answers, and then, they try. Sure, unlikely romances bloom, there's some conflict, but if you've ever seen a movie, you've seen this done better before.

The Perfect Score might've been okay if the cast hadn't been what it was; although the lovely and talented Scarlett Johansson might seem a strange choice considering the relative unknowns she's playing against, she's really the only one here who can work with this material.

In Roy, filmmakers have created a genuinely sympathetic stoner character (a rarity), and even the oafish Matthew Lillard finally lands the part he was born to play, as the direction-less burnout. But everyone else (particularly Bryan Greenberg, who should really consider a career in not acting, and Erika Christensen, who may very well be a robot) seems to have a terrible case of stage fright. Lines are mumbled, facial expressions unchanging. Everyone involved seems bored. Especially the audience.

-- Reviewed by Paul Thompson