'High School' reeks of reefer badness

Call it a case of reefer badness.

For John Stalberg's lowbrow stoner comedy "High School" to be really funny, viewers would have to be blitzed out on weed to take up the humor slack.

(This is not an original movie review lead. The late Gene Siskel and I both coincidentally used variations of it when reviewing Cheech and Chong's "Up in Smoke" in 1978.)

Stahlberg's "High School" marks the first adolescence comedy to be built around the utterance of a single word since Sean Penn turned "Awesome!" into a national expletive during "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."

Here, the word is "Whaaaaaat?"

Unlike "awesome," "Whaaaaat?" gains comic traction through its constant repetition by ganja-jacked drug dealers, stoned students and a toasted toad.

Yep. It's that kind of movie.

It begins with the unlikely pairing of potential class valedictorian Henry Burke (Matt Bush) and his burnout buddy Breaux (Sean Marquette).

Breaux (as in "Don't taze me, Breaux!") persuades his uptight friend to smoke a joint, unaware that their conservative Principal Gordon (a hilarious Michael Chiklis with a more hilarious haircut) has ordered mandatory drug testing the next day in school.

Henry freaks out. If his drug test turns out positive, he will not be named valedictorian and he can kiss goodbye all those offers of college scholarships.

Breaux comes up with a fiendish plan. If they can get all the students high for the drug exams, the tests will be thrown out.

All they have to do is steal $300,000 worth of powerful stash from a local druggie nicknamed Psycho Ed (Adrien Brody, Oscar-winning best actor for Roman Polanski's "The Pianist"), bake the drugs into cookies, cakes and brownies, then switch them out for all the goodies being brought to the school bake sale the next day.

Sure, it sounds easy.

That's before Psycho Ed discovers the theft and sets out to find Henry and Breaux at their high school, which apparently has no security set up to keep out rampaging nutjobs like Psycho Ed.

Meanwhile, Henry has the hots for a classmate, out of his league, of course, providing the obligatory romantic subplot.

Dutiful assistant principal Brandon Ellis (Colin Hanks, Tom's son) bumbles through the day, until he tastes some of the tainted baked goods.

Soon, the entire student body and school staff are feeling no pain, except for Principal Gordon, who runs around the building like the incarnation of Dean Wormer from "Animal House," on the prowl for rule-breakers, but oblivious to those right under his squeaky clean nose.

"High School" goes about its unapologetically pro-hemp way ("Be somebody!" Breaux says when urging a classmate to partake of the forbidden plant) in a measured, almost leisurely pace, as if Stalberg and his editor might have been working in an elevated state on this movie.

The emotions are thin. The stock characters are thinner. And Stalberg forgets to ratchet up the comic tension as the movie saunters into its third act with all the intensity of Psycho Ed after testing his newest crop.

Sometimes, weed comedies need a little speed, too.

“High School”

★ ½

Starring: Matt Bush, Adrien Brody, Michael Chiklis, Colin Hanks

Directed by: John Stalberg

Other: An Anchor Bay Films release. Rated R for drug use, language, sexual situations and nudity. 93 minutes