Atrocious 'American Beauty' for 80s kids

Rating: 2/10 (4 November 2001)

Sometimes the buzz is wrong. Really goddamned wrong. So wrong you walk out of the theater in disbelief that the movie ever got made in the first place.
Cloaking itself in some social satire against the easiest targets possible, the movie shifts clumsily in tone from horror to teen comedy to family drama. Pop culture references from the '80s--the smurfs, hungry hungry hippos, etc.--pepper the film, largely out of an attempt to capture the decade through products rather than through a compelling or sensical plot.
The end makes little to no sense and is made worse by a severely inept soundtrack decision. Executive producer Drew Barrymore has a small role as a rebellious teacher at the high school. This is about as fitting as anthony hopkins as jabba the hut. You'll laugh a couple times, cringe a helluva lot and taste bile at the schlock end.