As expected, The Perfect Score delivered a good, solid 90 minutes of entertainment. (And it was only 90 minutes long, as opposed to too many 120 minute movies that deliver a good solid 90 minutes...) The cast, including an old fave, Erika Christensen, and sure to become a new fave, Scarlett Johansson, felt like high school students, not adults trying to play young. The characters, in the best John Hughes tradition, each represent a particular type of teenager, but they have just enough depth to stand out as individuals. You know, just like the kids in The Breakfast Club, which the filmmakers cite as a model... (Oh, forgot to mention the standout performance of Leonardo Nam as the Comic Stoner...)

Here's why the movie works for me: It has a story to tell (six kids conspire to steal the answers to the SAT, and in the process learn something about themselves) and it just goes ahead and tells that story with a cast of down-to-earth, normal characters. Nothing about it feels forced; no jokes, no drama, no character moments. It just is what it is--how very Zen--and there's nothing to pull me out of it. (Okay, there's one Matrix parody, but it fits, and goes by quick enough.) Proof once again that Brian Robbins (the Robbins half of Tollan/Robbins Productions, here directing) can be relied upon to deliver the goods.