Jim Belushi’s vehicle “The Principal” is that case of a movie that never knows what the hell it wants to be. Sometimes it strives to be an inspiring tale of a principal helping students to learn in a lower class school, and other times it’s an action movie about a man fighting against local gang members.
Jim Belushi tries his best to be both inspirational and bad ass, and fails colossally in both regards. Mainly because he’s a balding character with a paunch, he doesn’t quite sell the role of this hard nosed clever teacher the same way Louis Gossett Jr. does as the school’s tough head of security that seems to have little to no effect on the environment. But then who’d want to see an action movie about a school security guard becoming a superhero, anyway? Michael Wright is great as the resident baddie Victor Duncan, a gang banger and gangster who keeps the school Belushi’s character Rick Latimer resides in under his grip. Much to the shock of the staff, Rick actually doesn’t mind reporting incidents and bringing thugs to justice, while they stand idly by afraid for their own personal welfare.
When Rick actually begins making a difference with his unorthodox methods of teaching and influencing, Victor begins to feel threatened and there is soon a violent war for control. Rae Dawn Chong who starred in almost every eighties movie ever made, is also very good as the school’s only good teacher who becomes an unfortunate victim in the battle. Belushi is charming in his way, offering his own street wise bravado that make him at least a solid inadvertent hero who fancies himself a biker. “The Principal” works as goofy action escapism that tries to pretend it has a message, in the end.
There’s a lot of tension involved in the battle for the school between Latimer and Victor, all of which give way to some great action sequences. At one point Rick even drives through the school on his motorcycle thwarting a rape attempt, and there’s the final stand off that ends on a very solid chase and fist fight. “The Principal” loves to think it is a twist on the formula, but in the end it’s just another movie about a white person saving the brown people from themselves and educating the poor minorities who couldn’t educate themselves. It’s a guilty pleasure from the eighties, albeit a racist one, but at least Belushi experiences his last bout of being cool.
Definite guilty pleasure. One of those movies from my childhood that just brings me back.
Same here. Before the days of cable and internet, I watched this movie about a dozen times a week. “I’m the principal, man!”