Too many fans seem to be blown away

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Nice effects though.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

When the movie starts, we see Joe Clark teaching class at Eastside High School in 1967. His students are intelligent, well-groomed, and well-behaved. He quits because the teachers' union has sold out to the school board or something vague like that. Twenty years later, the school has become so bad it makes the one in "Blackboard Jungle" (1955) look like the Blackboard Tropical Rainforest. The students are the meanest, most vicious bunch of high-school hoodlums ever displayed on the big screen.Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention one more difference: all the clean-cut, intelligent students in the school in 1967 are white; most of the students in the school twenty years later are African American, with some Latinos, and a mere handful of whites. When I first saw this, I wondered if the movie had been produced by the Ku Klux Klan, because it comes across as a racist's worst nightmare. But, since the story is true, I guess those were the facts, and they just went with it. When Clark is asked to become the principal to help improve the students' test scores, I wondered how he could possibly do anything with them. Well, I don't want to take anything away from Clark, but not only does he have a bunch of security guards with him when he arrives, but on the second day, he also expels a whole bunch of students. Anybody could straighten out a school with dictatorial powers like that. Think how much Glenn Ford could have accomplished in "Blackboard Jungle" if he could have expelled Vic Morrow on the second day of class. Of course he succeeds with the remainder of the students, and all is well.Toward the end, a girl tells him she is pregnant. We never find out what she did about it. That way those who are pro-life can imagine her keeping the baby, and those who are pro-choice can imagine her having an abortion. Very clever, Hollywood.

Joe Clark is a poor choice for a movie hero, assuming this biography is at all accurate. Professionally, he should not have been in charge of anything or anyone, and I find it hard to believe that the school improved under his leadership as depicted. What the students needed most in this school was a sense that they create their own community and have to live in it. They got a charismatic fanatic, whose authority is arbitrary and capricious--everything in the school was about Joe Clark and nothing else. Perhaps I just mistrust/dislike hero stories, but learning this kind of devotion to an individual is not a substitute for learning to participate in a community.

I would like to start by first saying that I am not generally a fan of the student/teacher film genera. Movies of this type usually come across as either too sentimental, overly contrived, or both for my taste. "Lean on Me" would probably have been a likewise forgettable experience if it had not have been for Morgan Freeman's perfect casting for the role of Principle Clark.Based on true events, the film takes place in Eastside High School, one of New Jersey's worst public schools. When a bombardment of graffiti, drug dealing, riots and low grades threaten to pull the institution apart, superintendent Frank Napier (Robert Guillaume; The Lion King, Big Fish) decides to hire his most controversial teacher, Joe Louis Clark (Morgan Freeman; The Shawshank Redemption, The Dark Knight) as principle to clean things up.The best part of this picture was undeniably Morgan Freeman's role. The concept of an eccentric and short-tempered character has been, to say the least, overdone; However, Freeman's portrayal of 'Crazy Joe' feel new and, surprisingly, relatable.That is not to say that the Morgan Freeman's casting was the only saving grace of this film. The relationships played out between the teachers, administration, parents, and students were fairly well done on all parts.Ultimately, Freeman succeeded in stealing the spotlight throughout. He carried something that would have been average and made it not a just a brilliant film, but his brilliant film. If anything, "Lean on Me" was a movie that leaned on Morgan Freeman in order to be as great as it was.

I loved this movie it was great. And i think its an very inspiring movie for teens.My favorite part in the movie was when the boys got caught in the bathroom,because i thought they were going to mess up but they didn't they sung perfectly.I think this movie can teach many people how to improve with their selves.Many problems in this movie are going on today in school.And just like they were fixed in this movie they can be fixed i schools today.Like they kids falling asleep in class, and listening to music, not studying, fighting. Im not saying the same way they fixed them in the movie is the same way they can be fixed, but i know there is an way for them to get fixed . I love this movie no matter how old it gets i will always love it.