Barely Lethal

Plot synopsis:
The girls of Prescott Academy are taught practically since birth how to become trained assassins. Their number one rule is "no attachments". Number 83 (Hailee Steinfeld) has always had curiosity of the world outside the Academy, however. Despite her excellent work in the field, she has dreamt of a normal life. Her mentor Hardman (Samuel L. Jackson) has always discouraged her and the other girls from becoming attached to anything. 83's skills have also made her rivals with 84 (Sophie Turner).Hardman assigns the girls to capture wanted arms dealer Victoria Knox (Jessica Alba). The agents head to Chechnya to apprehend her. 83 goes undercover as one of those captured and brought before Knox. She manages to latch herself and Knox onto an oncoming jet with Hardman on it. When they get high and far enough, 83 drops herself into a river while the other agents apprehend Knox. They find no sign of 83 and declare her MIA.83 goes into hiding to start her new life as a regular teenager. She brushes up on her teen culture through popular magazines and watching movies like "Mean Girls" and "Bring It On", then enrolls in a high school and goes through an exchange program to live with the Larson family under the name Megan Walsh. She is picked up by Mrs. Larson (Rachael Harris) and her children Liz (Dove Cameron) and Parker (Jason Ian Drucker). Parker already likes Megan but Liz is cold and distant.Megan/83 picks a ridiculous outfit for her first day of school and is immediately laughed at. Liz gets embarrassed and gives her new clothes to put on. Megan gets introduced to the students at an assembly where she says she is from Regina, Canada, but she pronounces it to rhyme with "vagina". The students laugh at her, but she is saved by the school's most popular guy, Cash (Toby Sebastian), as he goes up to play his guitar and sing. He then performs onstage with his band, Emotacon.As Megan continues her new life as a high school student, she makes friends with a geeky kid named Roger (Thomas Mann), who has an interest in her, despite her attraction to Cash. Megan finds out she's in a biology class with him and hacks the system to make him her lab partner, to the ire of two mean girls. As retaliation, the girls convince Megan that Cash loves girls with school spirit and suggest she try out for the position of school mascot. Using her combat skills in her tryout, Megan scores the position. During a game, a few kids from a rival school come and try to kidnap Megan as part of an annual tradition. She kicks their asses and the video of her doing this goes viral. It earns her some popularity, but also annoys Liz.Back at Prescott, Hardman is holding Knox in captivity. 84 walks in on them as Knox tells Hardman that Prescott destroys lives, and she's not just talking about the targets.Megan spends more time with Cash, to Roger's dismay. As she's walking home, she is apprehended by a Prescott analyst (Jaime King) and is brought back to Hardman. He is ready to have his minion Pedro (Steve-O) torture Megan under the assumption that she is working with enemies of Prescott. He injects her with a truth serum and realizes she is honest when she says she only wanted to enjoy a normal life outside the Academy. Pedro also sympathizes with Megan as she cries. Hardman lets her go but warns her that if she gets into trouble, they won't be there to bail her out. They dump her on the front porch of the Larson house to make Megan look like she's super drunk.Megan gets invited to a big party at the home of the school's class clown Gooch (Gabriel Basso). Mrs. Larson encourages Megan to go and makes Liz join her. At the party, Megan continues to hang out with Cash, while Liz gets drunk with Gooch in his bathtub, learning that his name is really Bernard and that he's not a total jerk. To Megan's surprise, 84 is there, now going by Heather. Megan thinks Hardman sent Heather to shadow her, but she has her own plan brewing. She goes after cash to piss Megan off, forcing them into a game. Megan eventually wins Cash's attention and gets asked by him to the homecoming dance.The next morning, Mrs. Larson is upset with Megan and Liz since Liz passed out and got a dick drawn on her face. Megan is later about to take the bus to school when she sees that Hardman is driving a bus and only passes through to warn Megan that Knox has escaped from Prescott. Liz drives Megan to school, but they are pursued by a masked assassin. Megan steers them away from danger and admits to Liz her secret. They crash in a junkyard while also getting the assassin to crash. Megan goes to investigate and smells what she recognizes to be Ke$ha perfume, meaning it was Heather that tried to murder them.Liz is in the hospital after the crash. Megan tells her she has to leave before anybody else gets hurt. Liz responds that Megan trying to abandon the family would be worse.The girls go to the homecoming dance. Megan realizes that Cash is kind of a boring person and dumps him. She goes to apologize to Roger, who is still sort of upset with her, and then she finds out that his date is Heather. She provokes Megan's rage and they fight in the gym. They spill punch on the mean girls, who then start to fight each other. Heather chases Megan into the hallway where they end up in the kitchen. Heather says she joined Knox for the chance to kill Megan herself. She also brags about making out with Cash AND Roger. Liz sneaks up on Heather and stabs her in the leg with a corn dog stick, allowing Megan to whack Heather over the head and knock her out.Megan returns home to find that Knox and some goons have taken Parker and Mrs. Larson hostage. Megan fights the goons but Liz gets captured as well. Knox reveals that she was the very first Prescott girl, but she left and turned against them for robbing her of her life. Hardman shows up with reinforcements to take out the goons and tranquilize Knox. Megan knows Hardman came back to help her, despite his denial, and she hugs him. Parker asks Hardman how he can get in on the action, and he tells him to apply for the Prescott boys school. He excitedly asks his mom if he can.

Tags: revenge, violence

Review:
Haley Stanford plays lead role of a girl who wants to be a 'Normal teenager and experience a life of school and boys' but is unable to due to her training as a child to be an assassin.
Good cast with this movie to, Nice to see Jessica Alba and Jaime King making an appearance.
After a viewing at 1am I am pretty satisfied with the overall film, I didn't go in to this expecting a life altering message or acting that would move me, for what it is the film done the job; light, airy, a predictable yet enjoyable watch.The main draw to this film was the cast, I enjoyed Hailee Steinfeld in Enders Game and thought the somewhat masculine performance would carry well, her commitment was visible and seemed genuine (as much as could be) in the role of a deadly teenage girl.
The movie has a really cool concept:Sam L Jackson trains an army of underage girls to be government assassins, but his most skilled agent, number 83 seeks to regain her childhood by becoming a normal teenager after her last mission gave her the opportunity to fake her own death.It's been a while since I've seen Jessica Alba in a flick so it's cool to see her in this as the villain, though the movie centers more around Number 83, played by Hailee Steinfeild and how a teenager who does not know how to be a teenager learns how to be one.
This plot turned the big named stars like Jackson and Alba's role in the movie into nothing but overblown cameos.
You can actually tell from the way it's filmed that both of them were just collecting a pay check.Barely Lethal had the makings of a great teen comedy.
What can i say, i'm a sucker for girly teen movies.This film is very predictable, but I like that it's a mix between a high school movie and an action/spy movie.
Jackson's was hilarious as Hardman and Hailee Steinfeld was well cast as the main character Megan Walsh.For me there where laugh-out-loud moments, I think the movie had a great sense of humour that made it upbeat and witty.This movie was charming and a ton of fun.
Well, you may want to blame that to her unconvincing chemistry (not saying there's any) with both her love interests, and a boring villain whose presence may have only really felt during the last action sequence of the movie.BARELY LETHAL wastes almost every promising attribute it has to live up to its overwhelming potential.
even though there were some predictability in it and the trailer kinda exposed most of the story but i still weirdly found it intriguing and catchy.The genre was all about "Action | Adventure | Comedy" but honestly the "real" action element only presented in the first mission we saw agent 83 does and in the last fight with 84 , so to me the Humorous Comedy shown by most of the cast was really good and it made the movie more appealing.As for the cast, i will state those who were really awesome in the movie and did their part really well and those who were just okay, Samuel L.
Sophie Turner was just good did what were asked from her ,, i mean to be fair did more than what i saw in game of thrones ;D Rachael Harris appearance was nice , and not trying to be harsh but Dove Cameron was literally acting like she wasn't into the role ...
the movie went fine.So Overall, it is a nice movie and suitable for family night ,, the amazingly balanced funny script and the nice performance by the cast made it look like this..
except High School," or something close.Totally agree with earlier reviewers that every possible chance for getting a scene right was wrecked or ruined in favor of bad dialog and shaky acting.Clichés abound.
Don't get me wrong, Barely Lethal sounds like a cool idea, setting in an intriguing world where kids are raised to become assassins, and this story also concerns the main character seeking to live as a normal teenager.
Sure, it lightly pokes fun about the kids being trained as killers, Megan's awkwardness in high school, and the parental advice from one of the characters, but that's about it.
She may not convince that she's a highly trained assassin that her behavior has presented, but she still makes for a competent hero for the movie, anyway.There is a chances that Barely Lethal can be a way better movie than this, by either embracing its larger-than-life world of young killers or work more on its potential themes.
The premise sounds like it's gonna be some cool YA action film, but the only thing it offers is attitude and that's quite obvious for a movie with this title..
And a movie about such an agent going to high-school seemed like an interesting idea.
I read the synopsis, but wasn't overly reeled in by it, as it had that teenage-generic-action-comedy vibe to it.I will say that "Barely Legal" actually turned out to be far better than I had initially hoped or thought it would be, given the synopsis for the movie.
This doesn't challenge the viewer intellectually, so just unwind, lean back and enjoy the ride.They had some good performers in the movie, and it was nice to see Jessica Alba in the role that she had.
Hailee Steinfeld actually turned out to be a rather good choice for the lead, as she definitely stood her ground and performed well.All in all, you know what you are getting yourself into here with a movie such as this, and the movie does play on every available trick that has been seen before in similar movies.
Desperate to experience the 'normal' adolescence of teen movies such as 'Bring It On' and 'Clueless', a teenage assassin flees the institution that trained her and enrolls in a local high school in this action comedy starring Hailee Steinfeld of 'True Grit' fame.
The premise is ripe with potential and the film gets one of its best lines early on as Steinfeld tells a group of genuinely friendly cheerleaders "I've seen 'Mean Girls'...
twice!", however, not enough is made from the notion of Steinfeld navigating her way through the high school experience based on movie clichés.
Most perplexingly, she fails to pick up on the 'love is closer than you think' cliché with Thomas Mann doing the best he can in a thankless turn as the kind-hearted tech geek who has to wait the whole movie before Steinfeld realises that she wants him.
There is also a very funny bit in which Steinfeld and a friend discuss killing just like two normal teens discussing sex; "the first time should be special"!
This film is about a teenage girl named Megan Walsh (Hailee Steinfeld) who is a highly trained special ops assassin taught to fight bad guys at a school called Prescott Scouts for Girls.
Megan realizes that she is missing out on being a teenager and decides to fake her own death, enroll herself as an exchange student at a traditional American high school and live with a new family.
Megan does a lot of research and watches a lot of movies and reads a ton of teen magazines about life as high school student.
'BARELY LETHAL': Three Stars (Out of Five) An action-comedy flick about a teenage government assassin, who longs for a normal high school life; so she fakes her own death, and takes on a new identity, to get one.
The movie stars Hailee Steinfeld, Sophie Turner, Dove Cameron, Thomas Mann, Toby Sebastian, Jessica Alba and Samuel L.
I thought it was surprisingly fun, and entertaining, for such a seemingly generic teen comedy flick.Prescott Academy is a government school that trains special ops agents, to be assassins since birth.
The film is pretty simplistic; and it feels a lot like a TV movie (or TV show), in all honesty.
The idea behind Barely Lethal is that the government has some sort of top secret program that adopts orphan girls and trains them to be ninja-like assassins.
Megan (Hailee Steinfeld) is a great little killer but secretly she harbors a dream to be a normal teenage girl.
When it looks like she's been killed on a mission she decides to use this opportunity to disappear and reinvent herself as a high school student so that she can experience a normal life.
I believe this movie has a nice story line: a teenage girl missing out on the trends of adolescence and wants to be a part of it; and great casting: Hailee Steinfeld, Jason Drucker, Dove Cameron and Thomas Mann to name a few who did a fine job.
Unfortunately, I thought the secondary roles of Dove Cameron (Liz) and Jessica Alba (Knox) showed better acting skills.Great storyline and they could've done so much with it, rather than turn it into a corny teeny-bop movie.
Jackson, this teenage comedy espionage action thriller barely makes itself into a better than average, and almost quite good movie in fact.
Moderately entertaining action-comedy about a teenage girl trained as an assassin who masquerades as an exchange student so she can have a typical high-school experience.
"Barely Lethal" does very well with its youth casting, led by Hailee Steinfeld as Megan, the assassin "from Canada." It falls down on some of the adult roles, particularly Dan Fogler and Rob Huebel, who seem like they're too focused on their improv techniques to care about what movie they're in.
In fact, the whole film could have done less with the adults in the cast, even those who do good jobs like Rachel Harris as the mother in Megan's host family and Samuel L.
If I'd watch it a second time, maybe that quality would be annoying - or would I even care, if I've already seen the film once and I know what's going to happen?I love the twist that there's a teenage assassin who loves high school movies.
The writing in this film is barely decent, but Barely Lethal is still fun to watch when you know the tropes to both action and high school movies - and you know the main character has great knowledge of those high school movies.
It's worth watching, if you're into action comedies and high school movies, because if you hate either with a burning passion, you wouldn't enjoy this movie even a minute..
First off let me point out that even though Samuel L Jackson and Jessica Alba gets top-billing they are just co-stars, important co-stars but co- stars none the less that show up every now and then in the movie.The real lead however is Hailee Steinfeld who plays a teenage assassin gone AWOL in order for her to live a normal life and a lot of the focus of the movie is her trying to adjust to (a extremely typical American movie) high school.And although there is very little groundbreaking material in the script it did manage to keep me entertained through out the running time and I did find myself laughing here and there.The movie is rated PG-13 so all the violence and gags etc are fairly harmless (although initially the film received an R-rating, the film-makers appealed and got their PG-13 without having to cut anything out, so just barely PG-13 then).Sophie Turner from Game Of Thrones is a co-star and she get to show that she can kick some ass as well which was cool, Dan Fogler is pretty funny as a teacher and there is a cameo from one of the guys in Jackass (won't say who as that might take away the surprise factor a bit) but he was funny as well.So yeah overall nothing amazing but perfectly watchable when you're looking for some mindless popcorn entertainment..
I watched the trailer and saw Samuel L Jackson, Jamie King and Jessica Alba and thought the movie would be good...
and really sad to see why Samuel L Jackson and Jessica Alba would even think of considering doing a movie like this one...
It has the potential, actually, I mean there's Jessica Alba, Samuel Jackson, and Hailee, they could actually make the movie look better but their lines seems off for the characters they are portraying....
'If you think being an assassin is hard, try high school.' This is an often repeated line by Hailee Steinfeld who stars as Megan Walsh, also known as teen assassin '83' trained at Prescott, an elite espionage facility for orphans run by Samuel L Jackson who plays a character who seems to have taken time out from some Marvel action films.Megan just wants to go to high school and act like a normal kid rather than be a teen agent so fakes her own death and poses as a foreign exchange student from Canada and joins a foster family.
Of course she realises that being a high school student is no walk in the park with plenty of mean girls around making life hard for her.However her lethal skills are soon put to use and hit the internet leading to her cover being blown which leads to a side plot where Jackson and a senior assassin (Jessica Alba) are on to her.Maybe this film would had turned out better if it was written or directed by the late John Hughes who would had given it some innovative spin.
This is just a mixture of 21 Jump Street meets Spy Kids meets Mean Girls meets Kick Ass.Its a silly and predictable film and you know that when you see Jackson is playing just a cardboard cliché of the type of authority figure that is only played by him these days.The comedy and drama is uneven, you even have a scene where a teenager is threatened with torture and you think this is supposed to be some type of a family comedy..
You can definitely tell that he lacks experience whilst watching the film because there was no originality to the project and it just seemed like he had watched too many John Hughes movies.
She wasn't the best choice to play a special ops agent but her acting style worked when it came to the whole "teenager at college" part of the movie.
It's just a shame that the director wasted the good cast and he didn't put the budget to good use.Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: $6,000 (Terrible!)I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/adventure/comedies starring Jaime King, Samuel L.
IT SHOULD BE A GOOD MOVIE TO WATCH WITH YOUR FAMILY, MAINLY LITTLE COUSINS, ETC.The main character is RELATABLE even if you are not a 14-year old girl.
Jessica Alba seems to be content in playing smaller roles now (or at least that's what I've been seeing of her lately).The main focus lies on the teenage girl who's our main character and represents the more film educated younger audiences nowadays.
Obviously I don't mean to be exactly like her, but to believe in yourself and go your way (something of a message this movie also has apart from just trying to be entertaining)..
This film is about a teenage girl who is raised in an isolated school where children are trained to be assassins.
I'll start with what you need to expect..This film is meant to be an easy watch high school comedy adventure.
There are a few other big names in this film too with some smaller roles like Jessica Alba and Sam L Jackson, however they provide good entertainment.All in all I rate the film 8/10 ...
Had a lot of great actors and actresses like Jessica alba and Samuel Jackson..
The fact that each character makes it blatantly obvious of their cliché role in this cliché movie, is somehow anti-cliché, and therefore an extremely fun and well acted family feel-good movie.
Here the premise (she's an orphan trained since childhood to be an international assassin) is more than a bit ridiculous but has the virtue of serving up a heroine as fashionable as TV's Super Girl and Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen.Hailee Steinfeld plays the awkward girl trying to have a normal high school life as an exchange student.
Hailee Steinfeld faces the (bland) action scenes and her character's hesitant evolution as "normal" girl with credibility, while Samuel L.
I missed this type of movie, you know, girl goes to school everyone is mean to her she falls in love with the handsome jerk and then in the end realizes she likes the timid guy instead.
So if you like feel good movies then watch this one..
Like a lot of other teen movies.But still pretty good, and for those who have been raised by foster families, this movie might hit them a little to close to home.
Hailee Steinfeld was not convincing in her role as a killer or High School student, which was ashamed since she had a great supporting cast.
This also makes the movie achingly predictable but that doesn't make it any less fun and silly and just a really good time.
Samuel L Jackson, the guy who can't possibly integrate himself into any more films, plays the leader of the female assassin school.
The inexperience of director Kyle Newman might play a part in why it feels like it should have been just a little better but that's not to say that its a terrible film by any means.
But wants to live the normal teenage life by going to a normal high school so does her homework by watching teenage movies.
The thing that makes this film more tolerable than it should be are down to some of the performances; The likes of Hailee Steinfeld, Dove Cameron and Samuel L Jackson all help to make this a better film than it should be (particular praise going to Steinfeld who I thought was excellent).