Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

After popular high school student Ally Palmer (an appealing performance by the insanely foxy Hayden Panettiere) goes missing, nerdy history teacher Ronald Gibb (an excellent and engaging performance by Tim Daly) becomes the prime suspect concerning her disappearance because he was the last person seen with her. Director David Osky and writer Adam Targum ably wring plenty of painfully funny humor out of Gibb's pathetically lackluster lot in life. Moreover, Osky and Targum not only handle the potentially offensive premise of an older man lusting after a younger girl in a tasteful, yet still hilarious manner, but also derive a considerable amount of sly satiric mileage out of the hypocrisy of certain people in the town and the shameless opportunistic manner in which they attempt to capitalize on Ally's misfortune. The low-key quirky tone and brisk pace keep this picture on a steady course from start to finish. Daly does a fine job of making his sadsack loser character sympathetic; he receives ace support from William Sadler as Ally's slick car salesman father Phil, Paula Devicq as smitten neighbor Holly, Sarah Steele as the brash and meddlesome Amber, John Gallegher Jr. as Ally's dumb boyfriend Brett Mullen, Brian Anthony Wilson as the hard-nosed Detective Dick Moon, and Dan Hedaya as amiable janitor Gabe. Jordan Lynn's glossy cinematography provides an attractive bright look. Randy Lee's jaunty score hits the sprightly spot. A neat little sleeper.

This black comedy, kind of in the spirit of "Election", was only released on DVD several years after it was made and under the misleading title "The Good Student". It's a rare movie that instead of having a traditional hero, has more of a flawed "anti-hero", an unpopular high-school teacher (Tim Daly), who is as absorbed in his rather boring subject (US history) as any high-school teacher, but also harbors a not-so-hidden crush on one of his female students (Hayden Pantierre--I suppose it's kind of hard to blame him there though). After he gives her an ill-advised ride home and ends up kissing her, she mysteriously disappears, and he finds himself the prime suspect.The movie stacks the deck here quite a bit by casting the good-looking and fairly young Daly in the role and also giving him a very attractive love interest more his own age (Paula Devocq). It would have been a lot more brave to cast a guy who LOOKS like a lecherous middle-age creep. He's also seems relatively noble compared to all the other characters in the movie--like the missing girls' father (William Sandler), a car salesman who seems to be using his daughter's disappearance to bolster his business, a cop (Dan Hedaya), who is both overzealous and incompetent, and another female student (Sarah Steele), who mocks "Mr. Gibbs" for his attraction to the missing girl and his interest in "barely-legal" porn, but who turns out to have her own "Lolita" thing going on. The worst perhaps though is a sleazy fellow teacher who confides that he is exchanging grades for sex with his female students.This movie perpetuates the rather tiresome Hollywood myth that very many high-school teachers are, or would even want to, mess around with their students. Of course, not too many high-school students look like Pantierre, or even Steele. (Interestingly, Hayden Pantierre WAS high-school age when she made this movie, but she definitely doesn't look it. Steele, on the other hand, had played one of the more believable teen characters a few years earlier in "Spanglish" when she was in her "awkward years", but those years were obviously well behind her by this time). Like "Election", this movie does have some effective black comedy and satire, but it is a much more hit-and-miss affair. The movie also has a really great ending, but perhaps it is a little too subtle or ambiguous for many people to appreciate. All in all, this isn't a bad movie though.

The Good Student is a dark comedy drama starring Tim Daly and Hayden Panettiere.The story is about a high school teacher,who turns his life around after a student gets kidnapped.It was directed by David Ostry.An unpopular high school teacher finds himself the primary suspect in the case of a missing student when news gets out that he was the last person to see her.Mr. Gibb is reviled among the student body as quite possibly the worst teacher ever to stand at the head of the class. He's infatuated with Ally, a popular teen and local celebrity. When Ally suddenly goes missing, the entire suburban town descends into panic. Could Mr. Gibb have something to do with her disappearance? When a police investigation reveals that Mr. Gibb gave Ally a ride home mere moments before she vanished without a trace, the teacher who was universally despised discovers that his troubles have only just begun.The could have been interesting but unfortunately,it leaves the viewer wanting for more.The drama was not interesting and the comedy falls flat.Also,the characters in the film are hardly understood especially Mr.Gibb's fascination towards Ally.Why?Just because she is good looking doesn't explain everything.The only thing going for it is the presence of Hayden Panettiere,who is very pretty; and it will keep you guessing until the very end.

Did anyone else think he Gibbs, did it for the money? I thought it was a con he pulled to be able to get the money and that really was where he got all the money in his box. Hes done it before? Where do you think he kept her? It looked like a janitors closet in the school or bowling alley. It never explained why the boyfriend went to pick it but he would have had to be in on it? I thought the wife dying and him getting insurance was a story to tell the cops but he really got the money from doing this before. He gets the ransom and takes off. He took her with all intentions of letting her go after the father pays a ransom that he can collect. When the father doesn't offer a reward he does thinking the father will put up more money that he can collect? That was my feeling.