First-time screenwriter John D’Arco and “Fanboys” director Kyle Newman mash up the high school and spy thriller genres in the light-hearted but fun “Barely Lethal,” which was originally supposed to be released in 2014 but just recently hit Redbox. As lead character Agent 83/”Megan Walsh,” Hailee Steinfeld (“Ender’s Game,” “Pitch Perfect 2”) continues to establish herself as an up-and-coming star.
It’s hard to take the initial premise seriously, but oddly, it helps that the filmmakers themselves don’t present it all that seriously. The U.S. government has been secretly training orphans to become black-ops soldiers at a facility called Prescott Academy. It’s sort of like Manticore in “Dark Angel” (by the way, Jessica Alba has a supporting role in “Lethal”), except that these kids are not genetically engineered; they are simply given intensive training. We only see girls in this group, but instructor Hardman (Samuel L. Jackson) later tells Megan’s ninja-enthusiast exchange-family brother that he should look up the boys’ academy online. So maybe Prescott isn’t so top-secret? And what do they do with the orphans who can’t hack it? I guess we shouldn’t think about it too hard.
Curious about life outside the academy and its dangerous missions, 83 goes AWOL, gives herself the name Megan and manages to land a host family and enroll as a foreign-exchange student (allegedly from Regina, Saskatchewan – and yes, there are “Regina” jokes) at a high school in the fictional/typical American town of Newton. Hardman doesn’t seem too concerned with tracking her down. Again, don’t think about it too hard.
Once “Barely Lethal” gets to high school, it starts to pay off. Drawing from “Clueless,” Megan overdresses for her first day and gets made fun of rather than becoming instantly popular. Later, clad as the school’s Viking mascot, Megan beats the crap out of a rival school’s students who attempt to kidnap her as part of a tradition. Then the cheerleaders genuinely ask Megan to sit with them at lunch, but she rebuffs them, suspecting from her study of “Mean Girls” that it’s a trick.
A deleted scene finds Megan using her spy tech to listen in on what other kids are saying about her in the cafeteria, and it’s pretty mean stuff. This scene was wisely deleted, as it doesn’t fit with “Lethal’s” conceit: In reality, teens don’t tend to be cruel, they tend to be self-centered. And some of them are decent people who will befriend a new student. The students’ self-loathing inner thoughts in the “Buffy” episode “Earshot” are more on point than the nasty comments of the aforementioned deleted scene.
Granted, “Barely Lethal” does feature a couple of mean girls, but they are vegan hipsters rather than cheerleaders. And it has a popular kid, Cash, but he’s a singer/songwriter rather than a quarterback. Megan labels her new friend, Roger, as the “A.V. geek,” drawing from “10 Things I Hate About You”; Roger points out that, yes, that probably would be the correct term if it were the ’90s. Two girls end up fighting over the “A.V. geek,” flipping the gender stereotype. In these ways, “Lethal” acknowledges that rivalries between students over boys or popularity do exist, but they don’t always fall in line with movie clichés.
“Lethal” gets a lot of its mileage from the adorable Steinfeld, who is great at being over-enthusiastic about things like riding a bus. The mash-up of genres leads to some laughs, like Megan saying “oh-seven-hundred” instead of 7 o’clock, and quirky juxtapositions like Megan and exchange-sister Liz (Dove Cameron) playing with grenades and knives amid a “trying on homecoming dresses” montage.
“Lethal” establishes its premise right away and sticks with it, so if you’re not into the concept, you might find that it’s just pounding home a joke. If you dig the idea of a high school/spy thriller combo, “Barely Lethal” provides lots of smiles.