Expelled (film)

Expelled
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Alex Goyette
Produced by	Alex Goyette Brian Robbins Shauna Phelan
Written by	Alex Goyette
Starring	Cameron Dallas Matt Shively Lia Marie Johnson Marcus Johns Andrea Russett Kristina Hayes Teala Dunn
Music by	The Outfit
Cinematography	Jan-Michael Del Mundo
Edited by	Josh Noyes
Production company	AwesomenessTV Films
Distributed by	20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Release dates	December 12, 2014 (2014-12-12) (United States)
Running time	85 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Expelled is an American teen comedy feature-length film, written and directed by Alex Goyette. The film stars Cameron Dallas, Matt Shively, Lia Marie Johnson, Marcus Johns, Andrea Russett, Kristina Hayes and Teala Dunn. Majority of the cast are popular online internet personalities. The film was released in a limited release on December 12, 2014 before being released on video on demand December 16, 2014 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.^[1]

Plot

Felix O'Neil (Cameron Dallas) is a mischievous prankster who believes that school is a waste of time. One day, Felix is called to Vice Principal, Gary Truman's office. Mr. Truman tells Felix that it has come to his attention that Felix hacked a vending machine to hand out free gum. Felix is repeatedly informal and sarcastic to Mr. Truman and in turn, Mr. Truman expels him, this having been his third suspension in the semester. After Felix leaves Mr. Truman's office, he pulls the fire alarm to delay Mr. Truman from notifying his parents.

Felix spends the next few days covering up his expulsion with the help of his best friend, Danny (Matt Shively). A week before report cards are supposed to be mailed, Felix makes a deal with his ex-girlfriend, Vanessa (Andrea Russett), to help her win a class election against her rival, Stacy in exchange Vanessa being Mr. Truman's P.A., would print out a straight A report card for Felix. Felix and Danny hack Stacy's computer and discover that she is the notorious cyber bully, Roxy (one of Stacy's campaign promises is to shut down Roxy). However, Mr. Truman catches Felix off campus, destroys a hard drive connect Stacy to Roxy and threatens to have Felix arrested for trespassing. Instead of leaving the campus, Felix breaks into the media center and displays Stacy's and Roxy's IP address. Felix escapes Mr. Truman's wrath and Stacy not only drops out of the race but is suspended.

That night, Felix arrives home and finds his report card in the mail. But he discovers that instead of an A+, he got an F. Felix panics and in front of his parents, bikes away to the school to confront Vanessa. When Felix confronts her, Vanessa tells Felix that he deserves an F and he can't keep expecting other people to do his work for him. In retaliation, Felix ruins the school play Vanessa was starring in and once again escapes Mr. Truman. When Felix arrives home, he notices a box in front of his door. When Felix walks in, his parents chew him out and Felix almost cracks but convinces his parents that he had a singing part in the play and almost forgot about it. Seeing little other option to fix his grades, Felix and Danny devise a plan to break into the school and change their grades. Felix obtains the keys from Stacy by offering to remove her suspension from her permanent record. Felix and Danny successfully infiltrate the school and make it into Mr. Truman's office. However Mr. Truman is there, sleeping at his desk. Felix steals the keyboard and Danny remotely changes their grades to straight A's. Felix takes the opportunity to put the keyboard back, however he is caught in the act by Mr. Truman. Danny flees and Mr. Truman chews Felix out. Felix threatens to break the window only to learn that Mr. Truman already called the police.

Felix states he is boned. Soon a man claiming to be Felix's father comes to take custody of Felix. Once outside the police station, it is revealed that the man is Felix's equally as mischievous older brother, Ben (Marcus Johns). On the way home, Ben tells Felix his how he escaped his reform school in Montana (being sent there after he was caught for his actions repeatedly). Ben got a job in the mail room at his school, one day he became fed up and escaped by hiding in a box and re-addressing it to the O'Neil home. After disposing of the box, Ben entered the house when no one was home and hid in the attic, living off of expired fruit roll-ups. When they arrive home, the two are nearly caught. Felix manages to hide Ben and tells him not to leave the attic if anyone aside from him is in the house.

The next day, Felix obtains his report card from Danny. Felix shows it to his parents and they are blown away to find straight A's. Felix's mom, Julie (Kristina Hayes) informs Felix that parent-teacher conferences are happening within the week. Felix goes to Danny but Danny tells Felix that he can't be a part of his schemes anymore. With no-one to help him, Felix decides to fake a conference by bribing a school janitor to pretend to be his teacher. Felix pays and tells him to hide in the attic when his mom comes home early. Ben discovers the man in the attic, panics and accidentally knocks him out, unaware that he was the man Felix hired. Ben then decides to prevent Felix's teacher from coming to the meeting. As Felix and Julie enter the school, Ben accidentally gets himself tangled in the net that he attempted to shoot at the teacher and accidentally shoots himself with a blow dart. At the conference, Felix's teacher nearly tells Julie that Felix has been expelled. Ben suddenly appears and shoots Felix's teacher with a blow dart against Felix's objections. As the teacher is wheeled away to the hospital, Julie discovers Ben trying to crawl away in the hall. Felix attempts to deny his knowledge of Ben being there, but Julie deduces that Felix is lying. Felix is grounded and Ben is sent back to reform school, although he is already planning another escape.

Felix decides that the best way to prepare himself for what happens next is to accept that his parents will find out the truth. Julie arranges a meeting with Mr. Truman. One evening, Katie (Lia Marie Johnson), a pizza delivery girl who helped Felix get his plane out of a tree earlier, stops by Felix's house. Katie, being as free spirited and mischievous as Felix tells Felix that Mr. Truman ordered a pizza to be delivered to the school. They observe Mr. Truman in his office and watch as he loses hundreds of dollars while playing Blackjack online. They then go to Danny's house and Felix makes amends with Danny. Danny hacks Mr. Truman's computer and discovers that he is embezzling from the school in order to fund his gambling addiction. Danny downloads the evidence to a hard drive. That night Felix and the gang anonymously message Truman informing him that they are aware of his activities and Felix meets Truman face-to-face and blackmails him to re-enroll him. The next day, Vanessa discovers that Felix is blackmailing Truman but doesn't realize that Truman is embezzling from the school. When Felix, Danny and Katie go out for lunch, Truman presumably breaks into Felix's house and steals the hard drive. They remember that the original evidence is on Truman's computer and rush to the school just as Julie leaves.

Felix and Danny break into Truman's office and attempt to confiscate the hard drive. Once again, Truman is there, Danny runs off and Truman calls the police. Truman notes that he deleted the data from the hard drive and brags that he has finally won against Felix. But Felix reveals that while Truman was bragging, Danny has stolen his laptop which still has open tabs depicting the gambling and embezzlement and Danny threatens to show the evidence to the police unless Truman re-enrolls Felix. Truman agrees and tells the police that it was a false alarm and re-enrolls Felix just as Julie arrives. Truman then tells Julie that Felix has been an exemplary student, finally relieving Julie's suspicions.

Although Felix still doesn't realize the true importance of school, he decides to start taking it seriously and putting in the proper work (although he still continues his pranks). Felix and Katie begin a relationship and Felix's hard work pays off as he begins to legitimately earn better grades.

Cast

Production

In September 2014, it was revealed that Cameron Dallas, Andrea Russett, Teala Dunn, Lia Marie Johnson and Matt Shively had all joined the cast of the film.^[2] Andrea Russett wrapped her scenes on September 23, 2014.^[3] Production on the film ended on October 9, 2014.^[4]

Release

The film was released in a limited release on December 12, 2014, prior to being released on video on demand on December 16, 2014.^[5] The film was released on Netflix worldwide beginning on February 1, 2015.^[6]

Reception

The film received largely negative reviews. Nicolas Rapold, writing for The New York Times, felt Dallas was unable to carry a feature film, stating "Stretched over an 85-minute feature[...] Mr. Dallas' brand of easy goofing just feels like coasting."^[7]

References

External links

• Official website
• Expelled at the Internet Movie Database
• Expelled at AllMovie