Barely Lethal (2015)

Ideas that don't meet their potential are the bete noire of film reviews. In theory every movie that has ever been made could potentially have benefited from one more rewrite, one more tweak, before going before the cameras.

And then there is this film. Arguably the "poster child" for scripts that weren't quite ready for primetime. The irony is that the idea is rock-solid; and, even more ironic, something Hollywood (A-List Hollywood, not backlot Hollywood) had seemingly missed.

I am betting the logline for this was something like "Trained teen female killer ready for anything ... except High School," or something close.

Totally agree with earlier reviewers that every possible chance for getting a scene right was wrecked or ruined in favor of bad dialog and shaky acting.

Clichés abound. They actually leap off the screen and bang you on your head to make sure you get the "joke" (like the substitute mom whose every piece of advice sounds oddly like an apology for something she herself did when she was young ... or the father who tries so hard to talk his son that he sounds like an SNL skit).

Could have been a contender. Really.

Fmovies: Candy coated, sure, but not without poignancy. Above-par acting and a great cast elevate this slightly formulaic farce. Close your cold hard eye and have fun with this one. Some laugh-out-loud moments and great fight choreography. Hope to see the talented lead actress in more films.

There must be a shortage of capable men, that's why women now seem to be the ones taking over in saving the world (if not doing something that only men usually do). Well, at least, that's how it looks in movies. We've seen Katniss Everdeen and Tris Prior lead powerful rebellions against their respective ironfisted governments, Clary Fray battle demons and supernaturals, and Jupiter Jones get crowned as the cosmic queen. I mean, from becoming mere sexual objects for playboy billionaires, they've gone as far as being the supreme leader of the universe, what else can these women do just so they could equate themselves with men? What about as an international assassin?

In Barely Lethal, 16 year-old Megan Walsh (not her real name) is a trained international assassin. This premise already engages interest and holds so much potential, but it fails to deliver a satisfying result. The problem begins when Megan leaves the academy where little girls are trained to become assassins. She fakes her death and enrolls herself in a suburban highschool, hoping everything is going to be normal. Only it turns out it isn't as easy as it seems. From here, the trajectory of the narrative disappoints immensely. It begins undermining the capacity of its lead character by dismissing the fact that she is a trained killer, exposing her vulnerabilities and teenage dramas, instead. This isn't a totally a insane idea, she's 16-year old, after all. But getting further dragged by bland one liners and intertwining subplots, makes it even worse. Eventually, in the wake of its competing concerns, it loses grip of its own direction and struggles to arrive to a decent endpoint. It also doesn't succeed tapping the utmost otential of its strong supports by not giving them enough material to work with. Jessica Alba and Samuel Jackson barely do something here, though there may be some little moments with their presence, that aren't really devoid of wit. Almost everything just falls flat, and the comic effort couldn't provide any aid, either, to redeem its sagging narrative.

By the time the movie is already fast approaching its finale, it isn't any more surprise if Megan never came close to any of those heroines mentioned earlier, and it really disappoints that she never really came to be someone interesting, either. Well, you may want to blame that to her unconvincing chemistry (not saying there's any) with both her love interests, and a boring villain whose presence may have only really felt during the last action sequence of the movie.

BARELY LETHAL wastes almost every promising attribute it has to live up to its overwhelming potential. In the end, it abandons what could be a unique take on the young espionage genre, and sets itself taking the leads of countless others it seems to emulate. The result is barely fulfilling.

Barely Lethal fmovies. The movie idea is really nice, genuine and fresh , the events are connected perfectly and the script looked really tight.. even though there were some predictability in it and the trailer kinda exposed most of the story but i still weirdly found it intriguing and catchy.

The genre was all about "Action | Adventure | Comedy" but honestly the "real" action element only presented in the first mission we saw agent 83 does and in the last fight with 84 , so to me the Humorous Comedy shown by most of the cast was really good and it made the movie more appealing.

As for the cast, i will state those who were really awesome in the movie and did their part really well and those who were just okay, Samuel L. Jackson he was amazing with a spot on performance, This year i'v watched also in Big Game and he got the same lovable personality .. Dan Fogler, Gabriel Basso and Rob Huebel they were hilarious and i wished to see more of them.. as for Thomas Mann the guy from project x maybe the script didn't give him a chance to do much ... Sophie Turner was just good did what were asked from her ,, i mean to be fair did more than what i saw in game of thrones ;D Rachael Harris appearance was nice , and not trying to be harsh but Dove Cameron was literally acting like she wasn't into the role ... but anyway it doesn't matter .. the movie went fine.

So Overall, it is a nice movie and suitable for family night ,, the amazingly balanced funny script and the nice performance by the cast made it look like this.

People don't seem to like this movie and i'm not sure why. yes it's formulaic, yes it's cliché, but I still think it's fun! What can i say, i'm a sucker for girly teen movies.

This film is very predictable, but I like that it's a mix between a high school movie and an action/spy movie. there is not a lot of character development but I still liked the characters and I understood their motives. Samuel L. Jackson's was hilarious as Hardman and Hailee Steinfeld was well cast as the main character Megan Walsh.

For me there where laugh-out-loud moments, I think the movie had a great sense of humour that made it upbeat and witty.

This movie was charming and a ton of fun. I certainly see why people would think its dumb or even stupid because of its formulaic nature, but i liked it. A feel-good movie that is very charming and entertaining.

Not all movies can be epic.

I went into the theater not expecting much, even though such actors as Sam L. Jackson and Jessica Alba names appeared on the movie poster. The movie has a really cool concept:

Sam L Jackson trains an army of underage girls to be government assassins, but his most skilled agent, number 83 seeks to regain her childhood by becoming a normal teenager after her last mission gave her the opportunity to fake her own death.

It's been a while since I've seen Jessica Alba in a flick so it's cool to see her in this as the villain, though the movie centers more around Number 83, played by Hailee Steinfeild and how a teenager who does not know how to be a teenager learns how to be one. This plot turned the big named stars like Jackson and Alba's role in the movie into nothing but overblown cameos. You can actually tell from the way it's filmed that both of them were just collecting a pay check.

Barely Lethal had the makings of a great teen comedy. It had an interesting concept that the filmmakers were able to show off in the movie. It was put together nicely with action an comedy that made for a fun flick, but it won't go down in history with the John Hughes flicks from the 80s or American Pie franchise.

But I still found it worthy to take a look at.