A group of culturally illiterate stereotypes stage increasingly anarchistic protests against their overbearing principal in this heavy-handed high-school satire. Purportedly inspired by true events of infractions of student rights, the misguided filmmakers set out to tackle subjects ranging from homophobia and racism to free speech and safe sex, but end up with a product insensitive to all of these issues. It's a movie about thinking for yourself to expand intelligence made by people who don't have any.
When student Holden Donovan (Smith) gets expelled from school for attacking the principal's ultra-conservative policies, his friends decide his First Amendment rights have been violated and the war is on. While the impossibly dogmatic Principal Weller (Bowen) is certainly deserving of a slap in the face, their response—including arson and a staged suicide—is hardly appropriate. Teenagers may be people, too, but in this movie they're not very bright.
Coming on the heels of last year's tough and smart teen comedy Saved!, as well as this spring's thought-provoking Crash, both of which dealt with similar themes, Kids can only be viewed as a colossal disappointment. For those who thought those two films were ham-fisted, you haven't seen anything yet.