MovieChat Forums > Higher Learning (1995) Discussion > This movie is unintentionally hilarious

This movie is unintentionally hilarious


It's a bunch of cliches and stereotypes. This film is complete garbage.

- The white supremecists are wannabe tough-guys who get their asses kicked by Busta Rhymes. Really?!
- The cops are racist caricatures asking blacks for their ID.
- The blacks are a bunch of loud idiots who feel they are "held down by the man."
- The professor wore a sweater and smoked a pipe. HAHA!

It's like a terrible, unrealistic, politically correct version of American History X.
By the way, did anyone else laugh during the school shooting scene? It was the most satisfying part of the movie. I hated Rappaport's character, but I hated the PC college kids even more.

Speaking of which, is there a single likable character in the movie?

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is there a single likable character in the movie?

I liked Malik's girlfriend who was hot and smart and didn't get caught up in the bull crap.

I liked the lesbian chick who didn't want to take advantage of a vulnerable freshman in the vein of experimentation ("don't do it because you're fascinated"). Oh, and she's hot.

Other than that, everyone else was a poster child.

I think "PCU" was a lot more constructive.

I don't need you to tell me how good my coffee is. .

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This movie was made in 1995, of coarse it's going to be cliche.

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It's definitely pretty badly written. It's like a really, reeeeaallly long after school special...but for some reason it still made me nostalgic for the '90s.

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lol @ "long after school special"



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at the time of early-mid 1990s, sensitive race related current event issues such as O.J., Rodney King, etc., could cause someone/viewers to take in what's depicted in the film somewhat seriously. But after all these years, even with unfortunate real-life university/high school shootings that transpired also within the last decade or so, this film hasn't exactly aged well and yes, is somewhat sort of a joke causing me to agree it is unintentionally hilarious..

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bahh i dont know what you guys are talking about this movies a classic..
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Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

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I definitely have to agree of the hilarity of this movie. It's like in every decision Singelton made as director, he made the worse possible one. Okay, the black students fighting the skinheads may have been met as a comedic scene, though why use animal sound effects for your black characters is just strange to me. Like this is saying don't be racist but then does a racist thing. The scene where Michael Rappaport pulls a gun on Omar Epps and Adam Goldberg made me laugh. The scene is so bad from the camera work, the script and then the acting.

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Singleton might as well have called it "The Breakfast Club: The College years"



I'm holding everyone to a higher standard- a standard much higher than my own

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Don't Forget Tyra Banks' character's death scene. I was glad that the movie was over for her but not me!

I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy.

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It's to the 90s what Crash was to this recent decade.

(¯`i´¯)´·¸.)‹^›

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Yeah this film has zero subtlety to it. And when Busta Rhymes did his war cry- hilarious. Even more funny was when the White Supremacist who you see earlier working out and is huge, all you see during the fight is him getting knocked down, flung around and absolutely destroyed. Hilarious.

With that said, Higher Learning has pulp entertainment value. It's definitely capturing a time and place, even if only in black and white terms -literally and figuratively-

Brian Peppers is my Homeboy

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Yeah, this is LOL funny, but its also one of the worst movies ever made at the same time. Congratulations you got into college! Now you are a victim! Liberals crave victim status period. This movie is PC dogsh#t.

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I completely agree!

Some of my favorite parts:

--Daja screeching "WHHHHHHYYYYYYY?!?!!?" after getting shot

--The biracial couple in the Salt & Pepper Halloween costumes

--After Remy trashes his room and his roommate comes home (especially when he says something like, "Look, man, I don't care what you do with your side of the
room..." haha)

--The close-ups of the skinheads and the black dudes before their fight (do you really need to crack your knuckles and give sideways looks before getting into it? *beep* cheeseball as hell)

--Tyra Banks's horrific acting (especially her delivery of Afro-centric lines. ie: "Who you think dey look at?" "Stop carin what dey think of yo' ass" etc.)

Anyone got other parts to add?

Set 'Display threads as' on personal options to 'nested'-A PSA for imdb

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The OP hit the nail on the head.

There are other comments calling this satire, I don't think they know what satire is.

"Dr. Strangelove" is satire.

Others called a black exploitation film, no those were done in the 70s.

This is just a mess.

And no it wasn't good in 1995 either.

It is funny though.

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Exactly. Satires and blaxploitation movies were in on the joke; this movie is not.

The melodramatic/cheeseball "UNLEARN" splashed across the scene at the very end should make that apparent.

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Bingo,the cast and crew of satires and the blaxploitation films of the 70s knew what they were doing.

This film was supposed to(the key word being "supposed")be serious. It was funny when it wasn't intended to be funny.

No wonder the director who started out so promising when into oblivion, as I said earlier this was laughable when it was released.

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For once I totally agree with everyone in this thread. The film is a very special kind of bad. At least B movie directors are aware that they aren't going to win an Oscar. This film has no idea that it's a parody.

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Tyra Banks sex scene

"Well behaved women rarely make history" Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

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It's two years later but I hear the OP loud and clear. When I first saw this I thought it was a parody. i.e....."Don't Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood"
In addition to all that's been said, I was struck by Lawrence Fishburn and his accent that was vaguely similar to the "Lucky Charms" leprechaun. I half expected him to say, "they're always after me lucky charms....they're magically delicious." According to Singleton, you can be a white male and be decent, but only if you're gay or jewish. Anyhoo, there's other movies that deal with race and bigotry MUCH better than this one (not to mention being better researched)

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