this movie is written by the man who is deemed to be " one of the hottest writers in hollywood " . 
he wrote the groundbreaking screenplay for scream ( 8/10 ) , then added the successful i know what you did last summer ( 7 . 5/10 ) 
script to his mix , and also created the popular tv series " dawson's creek " . 
so when he asked to direct his first movie , based on his first ever script written , everyone and their grandma said " sure , go for it ! " . 
uhhm , my question is . . . did anyone bother reading this stupid script ? ? ? 
plot : ace student leigh ann watson is mistakenly caught with some cheating papers by the bitchiest teacher in the west , mrs . tingle , and set to lose her scholarship to college . 
when she and her friends visit the teacher at home in order to explain their side of the story , they end up tying her up , and slowly trying to talk some sense into the hardheaded woman . 
critique : it's not so much that this is a bad movie , than the fact that it sucks . 
this movie is chock-full of one-dimensional characters , contains no actual humor that i was able to zone in on , zero tension or thrills , plot holes the size of my big ass , lame pop tunes played to mask nothing going on in the movie , and molly ringwald , vivica a . fox and lesley anne warren tossed away in throwaway roles . 
i was primed for this film as its interesting premise had me thinking misery ( 8/10 ) and 9 to 5 , but unfortunately for williamson , he went nowhere with the bright foundation , making references to the exorcist and dr . 
zhivago , which i doubt many in his target market will appreciate . 
he also forgot about suspense , with all of his characters based on incomprehensible decisions , unbelievable motivations and simply boring us with all of their trite dialogue . 
sure , katie holmes is cute , and her co-star , marisa coughlan , did a reasonably amusing impression of the exorcist ( worth two points out of my three on ten ) , but how can we forgive the biggest one-dimensional character in any film , holmes' rival in the film , mrs . tingle's complete unprofessionalism being let go by all others around her ( are teachers allowed to behave that way nowadays ? ) and a transparent romance between holmes and some long-haired dude , hired to be the poor man's version of skeet ulrich ( who himself is a poor man's version of johnny depp ! ) . 
all in all , this movie was laughable for me , provided me with no insight into anything , demonstrated williamson's genuine lack of directorial skills alongside a juvenile script , and provided helen mirren with a great role to chew into , unfortunately forgetting to give her character any believability , humanity or capacity to comprehend . 
no hip lines , no cheap thrills , just a dull time at the movie theater . 
if you want to see a funny teenage movie , go see detroit rock city ( 8/10 ) , and thank my drunken , sorry ass in the morning . 
little known facts about this film and its stars : kevin williamson's father was a fisherman . 
kevin used his knowledge of fishing hooks and winches when creating the killer in i know what you did last summer ( 7 . 5/10 ) . 
he is also a huge fan of steven spielberg and coincidentally , so is dawson leery on tv's " dawson's creek " , a show kevin created . 
he was once an aspiring actor . 
in fact , he even landed a bit part on tv's " another world " . 
also , williamson has gone on record to say that an unsupportive english teacher who once told him that he would never amount to anything was the inspiration for mrs . tingle , which is also loosely based on the book " killing mr . griffin " by the writer of i know what you did last summer ( 7 . 5/10 ) , 
lois duncan . 
he has also come out and said that he is a gay man . 
helen mirren was born in london , england under the name ilynea lydia mironoff . 
she is married to director taylor hackford , whose works include devil's advocate ( 8/10 ) and an officer and a gentleman ( 8 . 5/10 ) . 
this film was originally titled killing mrs . 
tingle , but was changed after the columbine high school shooting incident . 
actress marisa coughlan will star in kevin williamson next tv project called " wasteland " . 
this is actor barry watson first full feature film . 
he has played the character of " seth " on tv's " malibu shores " several times .