The Movie Guys: It’s no great thrill to mingle with ‘Mrs. Tingle’

Friday, Aug. 20, 1999 | 1:08 a.m.

The Movie Guys, starring Jeff Howard and Dave Neil, appears Fridays in the Sun (Movie Buzz written by Thomas Feeney). You can also read their capsule reviews of movies in Las Vegas Weekly magazine. Plus, check them out online at lasvegassun.com/sun/sunlife/movies and themovieguys.com.

Grades:

Jeff, C; Dave, C-. Starring:

Katie Holmes, Helen Mirren, Marisa Coughlan and Jeffrey Tambor. Written and directed by:

Kevin Williamson. Rated:

PG-13 for language, adult situations and violence. Running time:

95 minutes. Playing at:

Las Vegas Drive-In, Cinedome 12 Henderson, Rancho Santa Fe 16, Century Orleans 12, Regal Cinemas Boulder Station 11, Regal Cinemas Village Square 18, Regal Cinemas Colonnade 14, UA Green Valley.

Synopsis:

All of her life Leigh Ann Watson has done the right thing. Her only ticket out of town is the one scholarship that goes to her school's top student. All she needs is an A in history. There's just one problem: the history teacher, who for 20 years has terrorized the students of Grandsboro High, Mrs. Tingle. Well, Leigh Ann and two of her friends are about to "teach" Mrs. Tingle a lesson of their own.

Jeff: Did you ever have a teacher you hated or who you were convinced hated you? I did. What a scenario. I was a new kid at Matt Kelley Sixth Grade Center, with no friends at all, and that horrible first day of school is forever imprinted on my mind. It was there that my history teacher (who shall remain nameless) made the following year of secondary education a living hell. This was back when Nevada allowed corporal punishment so any time I misbehaved or performed poorly, I was always threatened with a swat to straighten me out.

There are other examples, but my point is that kids put their trust in teachers and entrust their futures to them, and their actions mold young minds and make us who we are today. Mind you, this was the only teacher I had like this. I had outrageous thoughts about how to get revenge on my teacher -- nothing illegal or with malice. But the three teenagers in "Teaching Mrs. Tingle" go one step further, kidnapping their teacher and tying her to her bed in order to explain a simple misunderstanding of a stolen history exam. Mrs. Tingle holds their futures in the palm of her hand.

Dave: The movie wastes no time establishing the loathed instructor as a heartless, cruel, unforgiving soul whose lone passion is to ridicule, humiliate and destroy all hope that her students and colleagues possess. That's especially true for high school senior Leigh Ann Watson (Katie Holmes of the WB's teen series "Dawson's Creek") whose college future is in dire straights unless she receives her deserved A grade in ol' Mrs. Tingle's (a wickedly convincing Helen Mirren) dreaded history class.

Upon obtaining an average letter grade, she must strive with extra-credit work and ace the final exam to even be considered for the coveted scholarship that she is competing for against contending valedictorian Trudie Tucker (Liz Stauber). However, Leigh Ann is caught in a compromising position when she and her two friends, Jo Lynn and Luke (Marisa Coughlan and Barry Watson), are found with a copy of the final exam. This is where the story begins to take an absurd turn when the three, after a series of accidental events, are faced with attempted murder, abduction and never graduating from high school.

Jeff: This begins as a teenage version of "Misery," but the kids are not the ultimate fans of Mrs. Tingle. Instead they are a confused bunch of teens. With Tingle tied to her bed, the teens are certain that she will listen to reason. Yeah, right. They have no idea what to do. Their futures are crumbling before them and desperate times call for desperate measures, or so we thought. The film, we thought, would take a dark turn -- after all, the original title was "Killing Mrs. Tingle," which was changed after the Columbine shootings.

Mrs. Tingle's demeanor kept changing. One minute she was a cold-hearted woman, the next an abused child seeking sympathy, and most of the time she was pitting each of the teens against each other. Although superbly acted by Mirren, Tingle never gave me a tingle. I wanted more outrageous behavior, as in "War of the Roses." After all, these kids are fighting for their lives.

Dave: Making his feature debut behind the camera is writer Kevin Williamson, who helped resurrect a stagnant horror genre with his teen-scream flicks "Scream" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer," and jump-started the lagging WB network with "Dawson's Creek." With his proven talents for tapping into the social lifestyle of the '90s teen generation with his ability to relate their affairs and generational angst, Williamson is reminiscent of director John Hughes, whose social commentary spoke for every adolescent in the 1980s. Unfortunately, his finite direction is sub par compared to his later scripts. More predictable than dark, and even more senseless than satirical, this material seems tame and extremely light for what our filmmaker is capable of producing.

Jeff: You're right, Dave. I wanted more blood. I wanted things to get way out of control. It didn't and it's a shame. Williamson had the right idea for his first script, which had homemade crossbows and a seedy blackmail photo scheme with Mrs. Tingle and Luke naked in bed together, but Williamson never lets himself go and make a grab for that R rating.

The cast was strong, with Holmes playing the good girl struggling to get out of her hick town and, to her fans' surprise, shows some skin in a steamy love scene with Watson. The ever-hilarious Jeffrey Tambor as Coach Wenchell, who is just in the wrong place at the right time, never gets his chance to take center stage. He was wasted. Vivica J. Fox barely had three minutes of screen time, and Generation X fans will be happy to see Molly Ringwald, the queen of '80s teen films, as Miss Banks, a substitute teacher.

Williamson's eye for direction is sound, and we know from "Scream" that he has a dark side for horror and suspense, but after clearing the dust of his first script he should have taken the time to punch up the story and dialogue. With these faults, "Teaching Mrs. Tingle" is a generic, watered-down version of what most certainly could have been a funny, dark satire on values and the pressure to achieve.

In addition, Jeff, I have to comment on the fate of our antagonist, Mrs. Tingle. The film goes to great lengths to establish her as the sharp-tongued, manipulative woman whose bitterness toward her students stems from her hatred of what their "destructive generation" stands for.

Yet in the end we get a stale final act -- and behavior we hardly would expect from the Mrs. Tingle we've gotten to know -- that defines the very lesson she had continuously emphasized to Leigh Ann when she exclaimed, "that is irony." And this cinematic offering coming from Williamson is just as ironic.

Movie Buzz

Name That Flick

"First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired." Our congratulations go out to Paul Acsay, who was the first to call and identify the quote spoken by Alec Baldwin in "Glengarry Glen Ross." Way to go, Paul. For this week, what was the title of the first motion picture to use the widescreen Cinemascope format? If you think you know, call The Movie Guys Hotline at 225-9026, or log onto www.themovieguys.com. Be sure spell your name and if you're the first to answer correctly, we will print your name right here in our column for the entire Las Vegas Valley to read.

Be sure to pick up this week's issue of the Las Vegas Weekly to read our interview with Steve Martin, screenwriter and star of "Bowfinger." See you next week!