Kernel Rating (out of 5): 0
MPAA Rating: PG-13 Length: 86 minutes
Age Appropriate For: 13+. Teenage hi-jinks, including cursing, crude jokes, lots of bathroom humor; some kissing and a couple of jokes about being a peeping tom (making light of it); and lots of lying and parental manipulation, including hacking into a computer system to lie about grades and lying about being expelled.
The teenage comedy ‘Expelled’ basically tells its youthful audience that it’s perfectly fine to lie, cheat, and steal your way to the top. Aside from being poorly acted and poorly written, the film’s thematic content is egregiously irritating.
By Roxana Hadadi
When looking back over the classic teen movies, each of them has kids behaving badly: “The Breakfast Club” is about kids all serving detention together, “Sixteen Candles” including stealing underwear, and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” is centered around a smart-aleck kid skipping school to hang out with his girlfriend and best friend. But you rooted for Ferris, perhaps in spite of yourself, because of his charm and ingeniousness—ultimately, he just wanted to spend time with people he cared about. “Expelled” tries to update the “Ferris Beuller” formula (copies it, really), but everyone is so unlikable and the film such a perfect distillation of everything selfish about adolescents that it’s an utter waste of your time.
