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Class Act

Class Act

Comedy · Drama · 1992

Duncan is a genius straight A student, Blade is ajuvenile delinquent. But because of a mix up with their school records, everyone thinks each is the other one. Now, Duncan kind of likes the attention from being thought of as a real bad dude, if only the school bully would stop trying to rough him up. And Blade definitely likes being thought of as important instead of as trouble.

Movie details

Class Act

“A hair-raising comedy!”

1992 Comedy · Drama 1h 38m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.1 / 10

8.5K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

17 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

49 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.3 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Duncan is a genius straight A student, Blade is ajuvenile delinquent. But because of a mix up with their school records, everyone thinks each is the other one. Now, Duncan kind of likes the attention from being thought of as a real bad dude, if only the school bully would stop trying to rough him up. And Blade definitely likes being thought of as important instead of as trouble.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Class Act?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Critical Care

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Randall Miller

Written by

John Semper Jr. · Cynthia Friedlob · Wayne Allan Rice · Richard Brenne

Christopher Reid

Christopher Reid

Duncan Pinderhughes (as Christopher 'Kid' Reid)

Christopher Martin

Christopher Martin

Blade Brown (as Christopher 'Play' Martin)

Karyn Parsons

Karyn Parsons

Ellen

Alysia Rogers

Alysia Rogers

Damita

Meshach Taylor

Meshach Taylor

Duncan's Dad

M

Mariann Aalda

Duncan's Mom

Loretta Devine

Loretta Devine

Blade's Mom

Court is in session

Put Class Act on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.