''Barely Lethal'' is a 2015 American

action comedy film The action comedy is a film genre that applies to action films where humor plays a much more central role. While early films feature stuntwork and humor, academic Cynthia King wrote that the genre only came into its own as a mainstay of the Americ ...

directed by Kyle Newman, written by John D'Arco, starring

Hailee Steinfeld Hailee Steinfeld (born December 11, 1996) is an American actress, singer, and songwriter. She had her breakthrough with the western film ''True Grit (2010 film), True Grit'' (2010), which earned her List of awards and nominations received by H ...

Sophie Turner Sophie Belinda Turner (born 21 February 1996) is an English actress. She made her acting debut as Sansa Stark in the HBO epic fantasy television series ''Game of Thrones'' (2011–2019), for which she received an Emmy Award nomination for Out ...

Jessica Alba Jessica Marie Alba ( ; born April 28, 1981) is an American actress and businesswoman. She began her acting career at age 13 in ''Camp Nowhere'', followed up by ''The Secret World of Alex Mack'' (both 1994), and rose to prominence at age 19 as ...

, Dove Cameron, and Samuel L. Jackson. Steinfeld stars as Agent 83, a teenage intelligence agent yearning for a normal adolescence who disappears and enrolls as an exchange student in a suburban American high school. ''Barely Lethal'' received a digital release through DirecTV Cinema on April 30, 2015, and a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few cinemas across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

in theaters by

A24 A24 Films LLC, commonly referred to as A24, is an American Privately held company, independent entertainment company that specializes in film and television production, as well as film distribution. The studio is based in Manhattan. The company ...

and through

video-on-demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typical static broadcasting ...

on May 29, 2015. The film received poor reviews from critics.

Plot

The young female orphans in the government-run Prescott Academy are trained to become field operatives. Their number one rule, taught by trainer Hardman, is "no attachments". Agent 83's top skills are rivaled by Agent 84. 83 is curious about the world, learning teen culture through magazines and watching ''

Mean Girls ''Mean Girls'' is a 2004 American teen comedy film directed by Mark Waters and written by Tina Fey. It stars Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer, Amy Poehler, and Fey. The film follows Cady Heron (Lohan), a naïve t ...

'' and ''

Beverly Hills, 90210 ''Beverly Hills, 90210'' (often referred to as ''90210'') is an American teen drama television series created by Darren Star and produced by Aaron Spelling via his production company Spelling Television. The series ran for 10 seasons on Fo ...

''. Hardman assigns the orphans to capture Victoria Knox, an arms dealer. Undercover in Chechnya, 83 poses as one of those captured and brought before her. She latches herself and Knox onto Hardman's passing jet but 83 drops into a river as Knox is apprehended, causing Hardman to declare her missing. 83 adopts the name Megan, poses as a Canadian student, and arrives in Newtown, Connecticut to live with her host family, the Larsons. Mrs. Larson and her son, Parker, welcome Megan, but Liz, her daughter, is cold and distant. Megan is mocked at school, leaving both her and Liz embarrassed. She soon makes friends with Roger, a classmate, and becomes attracted to Cash, a popular student, hacking the school's system to assign him as her biology lab partner. Cindy and Donna, popular bullies, convince Megan to try out as the school mascot. When students from a rival school follow tradition and try to kidnap Newton High's mascot from a game, she fights them off, with a video of her actions going viral. It earns her some popularity while annoying Liz. Later, Megan is apprehended by a Prescott agent and brought to Hardman. He assumes she is working with their enemies, but she reveals she wanted to enjoy normal life outside the academy, leading to Hardman letting her go with a warning. Megan and Liz both attend a house party hosted by the school's class clown, Gooch. Megan hangs out with Cash, while Liz gets drunk and begins to bond with Gooch, as 84 arrives at the party, calling herself Heather. Megan assumes Hardman sent Heather to shadow her, but Heather denies this and tries to seduce Cash to irritate her. Megan eventually wins Cash's attention and gets asked by him to the homecoming dance. The next morning, Hardman warns Megan that Knox has escaped from the academy. Liz drives her to school, but they are pursued by a masked assassin. Megan reveals her secret to her and crashes the two cars, but the assassin escapes. Megan recognizes the smell of perfume, identifying Heather. The two leave for the hospital, where Roger and Gooch visit the girls separately. At the homecoming dance, Megan becomes bored by Cash and leaves him before making amends with Roger. However, Heather reveals herself as Roger's date, provoking a fight between her and Megan. She further discloses she joined Knox's operation in order to get a chance to kill Megan. Liz sneaks up on Heather and stabs her in the leg and the two escape. Megan and Liz return home to find that Knox and her mercenaries have seized Mrs. Larson and Parker as hostages. Knox reveals that she was Prescott Agent 1, but she left and turned against them for robbing her of her life. Hardman comes in with reinforcements and subdues Knox and her mercenaries. Megan uses a Prescott helicopter to stop Roger, who is driving home. She tells Roger her true feelings for him and the two kiss before joining Liz and Gooch in the helicopter. In a

mid-credits scene A post-credits scene (also known as a stinger, end tag, or credit cookie) is a short teaser clip that appears after the closing credits have rolled and sometimes after a production logo of a film, TV show, or video game has run. It is usually i ...

, Heather meets with a former henchman of Knox and orders him to find out where Megan is going to college.

Cast

as Megan Walsh/83 ** Madeleine Stack as Megan (age 8) *

as Victoria Knox * Samuel L. Jackson as Hardman *

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

as Roger Marcus *

as Heather/84 ** Eva Cooper as Heather (age 8) * Dove Cameron as Liz Larson * Toby Sebastian as Cash Fenton * Gabriel Basso as Gooch * Rob Huebel as Mr. Marcus *

Jaime King Jaime Barbara King (born April 23, 1979) is an American actress and model best known for her roles in TV series '' Hart of Dixie'' (2011–2015) and ''Black Summer'' (2019–2021), and films such as ''Pearl Harbor'' (2001), ''Slackers'' (200 ...

as Analyst Knight * Rachael Harris as Mrs. Larson * Jason Drucker as Parker Larson * Alexandra Krosney as Cindy * Emma Holzer as Donna *

Dan Fogler Daniel Kevin Fogler (born October 20, 1976) is an American actor, comedian and writer. He had his breakout in theatre, winning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his role as William Barfée in the Broadway production of '' ...

as Mr. Drumm *

Finesse Mitchell Alfred Langston "Finesse" Mitchell (born June 12, 1972) is an American actor, stand-up comedian, and author. From 2003 to 2006, Mitchell was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live''.Jinelle Shengulette"Comedian Fine ...

as Principal Weissman * Christopher Nathan Miller as Fred the Freshman *

Steve-O Stephen Gilchrist Glover (born June 13, 1974), known professionally as Steve-O, is an American stunt performer, comedian, media personality, and podcast host. His career is mostly centered on his shocking and pain-inducing stunts in the realit ...

as Pedro

Production

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

began in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

in November 2013 and ended in December.

Post-production

On July 7, 2014, it was announced that Mateo Messina would be scoring the music for the film. The film originally received an R rating by the

Motion Picture Association of America The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the Major film studios, five major film studios of the Cinema of the United States, United States, the Major film studios#Mini-majors, mini-major Amazon MGM Stud ...

(MPAA), but the filmmakers appealed for PG-13 rating without having to cut or edit any scenes. The film is now rated PG-13 on appeal for 'sexual material, teen drinking, language, drug references, and some action violence'. The film debuts the original song "You Don't Know Me", performed by The Rumor Mill with Chetti, which plays over the opening title sequence.

Release

On February 25, 2015, the film was acquired by

and

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

before being released in theaters and on-demand with a planned release in 2015 by A24. The film was released on DirecTV Cinema on April 30, 2015. The film was released in a

and through

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

beginning on May 29, 2015. The film was released in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

on August 28, 2015, in select cinemas and was released through

and on DVD and Blu-ray on October 26, 2015, by Signature Entertainment.

Home media

The film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

on August 4, 2015, by

Lionsgate Home Entertainment Lionsgate Studios Corp. (simply known as Lionsgate Studios) is a Canadian-American film and television production and distribution conglomerate, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, and primarily based in Santa Monica, California. It was f ...

. Both contained an

UltraViolet Ultraviolet radiation, also known as simply UV, is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 10–400 nanometers, shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation is present in sunlight and constitutes about 10% of ...

digital copy of the film. Special features included deleted scenes, a behind-the-scenes featurette titled "Back to School: On Set with Barely Lethal" and an audio commentary with director Kyle Newman and actors Dove Cameron and

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 26% based on 35 reviews, and an average rating of 4.3/10. The website's critical consensus states: "Just like its underserved protagonist, ''Barely Lethal'' is in disguise -- it wants you to think it's smarter than it is but it fails by falling prey to all the clichés it mocks". On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a weighted average scored 44 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Rebecca Keegan of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' gave the film a poor review, commenting that: "''Barely Lethal'' is clearly confused about its intended audience, starting with the icky title, a pun on the porn label that selects and photographs models to emphasize their youth." Justin Lowe of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' gave the film a more positive review, calling it a "fun-enough teen action comedy." Bill Goodykoontz of ''

The Arizona Republic ''The Arizona Republic'' is an American daily newspaper published in Phoenix. Circulated throughout Arizona, it is the state's largest newspaper. Since 2000, it has been owned by the Gannett newspaper chain. History Early years The newspap ...

'' gave the film a mixed review saying that: ''Barely Lethal'' has some laughs, and will probably serve nicely as a movie you can land on for a few minutes when it shows up on cable. But it slides into the rote generic-teen-comedy mode too soon to be anything more.'

Score

The original motion picture soundtrack for Barely Lethal was released on June 9, 2015, by

Lakeshore Records Lakeshore Village Entertainment, LLC was an American independent film production, finance, and former international sales and distribution company founded in 1994 by Tom Rosenberg and Ted Tannebaum. Lakeshore Entertainment is headquartered in Bev ...

. The album features the film's original music composed by Mateo Messina. The album does not contain "You Don't Know Me", performed by The Rumor Mill with Chetti, an original song for the film. The song does appear in the opening title sequence of the film.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barely Lethal 2015 films 2015 action comedy films 2010s English-language films 2010s high school films 2010s teen comedy films American action comedy films American high school films American teen comedy films Films directed by Kyle Newman Films shot in Atlanta RKO Pictures films Teen action films 2010s American films Films produced by Ted Hartley English-language action comedy films English-language teen comedy films Dune Entertainment films A24 (company) films