Recess: School's Out

**Recess: School's Out** is a 2001 American film directed by Chuck Sheetz. It is based on the television series Recess and is the first film. The film was released on February 16, 2001.

## Plot

In the Nevada desert, a group of men break into a military base and steal a top-secret project, intending to use Third Street School as their headquarters.

Meanwhile, T.J. Detweiler and his friends pull one last prank before school closes for the summer and get away with it. T.J. is anticipating spending summer with his friends, but he is shocked to learn that they’ve all decided to go to different summer camps, leaving the next morning. Two days later, while riding around town alone, T.J. notices strange activity going on at the school before being chased off by an aggressive bald man named Kojak. Investigating further the next day, he sees some scientists inside using a tractor beam to levitate a safe. He tells his parents and the police, but neither believe him. He then goes to Principal Prickly for help, but Prickly is dematerialized after putting his key in the lock, leaving only his shoes behind. Desperate, T.J. blackmails his older sister Becky to drive him to each of the camps to pick up his friends.

T.J. and his friends obtain a box from one of the vehicles at the school, only to find inconsequential school documents inside. T.J.’s friends accuse him of lying to them until they witness a giant laser device emerge from the school and Kojak disguised as Prickly, verifying T.J.’s suspicions. They then formulate a plan involving going to camp during the day and meeting up at night. The following day, T.J. finds Prickly’s golf pants in the dumpster, with a note reading “Help Me!” in the pocket; T.J. and his friends infiltrate the school that night to rescue Prickly, unaware that school snitch Randall Weems overheard their plans. Randall informs the school deputy principal Muriel Finster, who intends to catch them red-handed. Inside the school, the kids discover the auditorium has been turned into a laboratory and are caught after Mikey burps. T.J. is captured by the guards while his friends escape, which a flabbergasted Finster and Randall witness. T.J. is then locked inside the stock room, encountering a bound and gagged Prickly. The pair soon learn that the man currently overseeing the operation inside the school is Dr. Phillium Benedict, Prickly's best friend from the 1960's.

Prickly exposits Benedict's background to T.J.: in 1968, he, Finster and Benedict went to teacher training; Finster was Benedict's girlfriend at that time. When appointed Principal of Third Street School, Benedict decided to abolish recess to improve test grades, but furious parents protested his decision. Prickly asked the superintendent to encourage Benedict to rescind, but when Benedict declined, the superintendent fired him and appointed Prickly as principal, with Finster dumping Benedict out of disgust for his cruel plans. Swearing revenge on Prickly for his losses, Benedict went into politics, eventually becoming secretary of education, until he was fired by the President for reattempting to abolish recess nationwide.

T.J.’s friends look through several of Benedict's notes inside the box, where Spinelli acquires a date book that mentions lunar perigee (taking place at 12:22 pm the next day). Gretchen realizes that the device they saw earlier is a tractor beam and deduces that Benedict plans to use it to move the moon when it nears Earth. T.J. and Prickly get to Prickly’s office, where they discover Benedict’s plan to destroy summer vacation by creating a new permanent Ice Age that will force kids indoors to study year-round, and alert T.J.’s friends before they are captured again, but eventually escape. Meanwhile, T.J.’s friends persuade Becky to drive them to the camps and pick up all the other students. Taking charge, Gus concocts a plan to invade the school, which succeeds, and most of Benedict’s henchmen are defeated.

Meeting up with T.J. and Prickly, the group confronts Benedict in the auditorium, who summons more guards to stop them. However, Finster bursts in along with the teachers to save Prickly and the students, and a battle ensues. Benedict attempts to activate the beam himself, but Prickly punches him out, causing him to fall on and activate the beam. With Prickly unable to reverse it, T.J. tosses his baseball to Vince and instructs him to throw it at the machine, destroying it. The police are finally given proof about Benedict's plot and arrive at the school to arrest him and his henchmen for their crimes.

As the students and teachers are praised by the media for thwarting Benedict's plot, T.J.’s friends decide to spend the rest of their summer vacation with him. T.J. goes to Prickly’s office to thank him; Prickly thanks T.J. for reminding him that he started teaching to help kids. T.J. then leaves with his friends as Prickly puts on his peace symbol necklace from 1968, then jokingly reminds T.J. he’s still going to be in trouble for his earlier prank when September comes.

## Cast and Characters

* Andrew Lawrence as Theodore Jasper "T.J." Detweiler
* Rickey D'Shon Collins as Vincent Pierre "Vince" LaSalle
* Jason Davis as Michael "Mikey" Blumberg
	+ Robert Goulet as Singing Voice of Mikey Blumberg
* Ashley Johnson as Gretchen Priscilla Grundler
* Courtland Mead as Gustav Patton "Gus" Griswald
* Pamela Adlon as Ashley Funicello Spinelli
* Dabney Coleman as Principal Peter Prickly
* Melissa Joan Hart as Becky Detweiler
* April Winchell as Miss Muriel P. Finster
* James Woods as Dr. Phillium Benedict
* Peter MacNicol as Professor Fenwick
* Diedrich Bader as Guard #2
* Allyce Beasley as Miss Alordayne Grotke
* Gregg Berger as Tech #1
* Klee Bragger as Digger Sam
* Clancy Brown as Kojak
* Dan Castellaneta as Guard #1
* Lane Toran as King Bob
* Rachel Crane as Ashley Q
* Elizabeth Daily as Captain Sticky
* R. Lee Ermey as Col. O'Malley
* Ron Glass as Dr. Lazenby / Tech #2
* Tony Jay as Dr. Rosenthal
* Clyde Kusatsu as Mr. Yamashiro
* Charles Kimbrough as Mort Chalk
* Tress MacNeille as Lunchlady Irma / Opera Director / Dr. Steinheimer
* Andrea Martin as Lunchlady Harriet
* Anndi McAfee as Ashley A
* Mark Robert Myers as Technician
* Ryan O'Donohue as Digger Dave
* Philip Proctor as Golfer #2 / Scientist #2
* Patrick Renna as Jordan
* Kevin Michael Richardson as Cop #2
* Jack Riley as Golfer #1
* Justin Shenkarow as Soldier Kid / Wrestler Kid
* Michael Shulman as Hustler Kid
* Francesca Marie Smith as Ashley B / Swinger Girl / Upside Down Girl
* Kath Soucie as Counselor
* Robert Stack as Superintendant
* Ken Swofford as Coach
* Nicholas Turturro as Cop #1
* Erik von Detten as Captain Brad / Erwin Lawson
* Paul Wilson as Coach Kloogie / Mr. Detweiler

## Release

### Home Media

Recess: School's Out was released on VHS and DVD on August 7, 2001. As of November 12, 2019, the film, along with the series, is available to stream on Disney+.

## Reception

### Critical Response

On Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, the film has an approval rating of 60% based on 70 reviews, with an average rating is 5.8 out of 10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Though basically a television cartoon stretched out to movie length, Recess has enough successful jokes and smart writing to make it a worthwhile view." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 43 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film a two and a half stars out of four, saying, "Parents may find it amusing, but it doesn't have the two track versatility of Rugrats in Paris, which worked for kids on one level, and adults on another." Bob McCabe of Empire Magazine, gave the film a one out of five stars and said, "Even if it did keep the ankle biters quiet for an hour or so, this still wouldn't be worth your money."

Common Sense Media gave the film a two out of four stars and said: "Simply a TV episode blown up for the big screen."

### Box Office

The film earned $36.7 million in North America and another $7.8 million from other countries. The worldwide gross was $44.5 million, against a $23 million budget. The film was released in the United Kingdom on July 27, 2001, and opened on #7.