The Student (I) (2017) User Reviews

Only fools break the rules

[nogodnomasters · 3/10 · 19 August 2017]

Vance Van Sickle (Michael Blake) is a student in Abbey's (Alicia Leigh Willis) legal ethics class. He will do anything for an "A" except this isn't that type of movie. Vance's father was wrongfully convicted and committed suicide. Evidence was later revealed to exonerate him. Vance wants to make sure this never happens again. About halfway through the film we find out Abbey was a prosecutor in a similar case or you will know earlier if you read the film's quick description. Vance is an exceptional student, and when Abbey gives him a failing grade that will effect his scholarship....okay look at the DVD cover.

The film was mediocre at best, something one might expect from a Lifetime production. For those that love those improbable faux dramas with border line dialogue and acting, this one has it all.

Guide: No swearing, sex, or nudity.

Easy to watch! No complicated plots!

[rgeiken · 5/10 · 25 March 2019]

Another "Trinket" From Netflix that even though it was low budget, I kept with it to the end. No Stars in this one, although they were competent actors and actresses. The plot was thinner than weak tea, but it still kept me occupied for the full 90 minutes of the movie! Not the worst film that I have seen on Netflix this month, but not particularly memorable. I did enjoy it though, so in the final analysis I guess I found it to be a good movie and worth the watch.

A Mess.

[Marc_Action · 3/10 · 7 April 2019]

A young mysterious male student, Vance Van Sickle (Blake Michael), shows up in Professor Abigail Grandacre's (Alicia Leigh Willis) legal ethics college course and immediately proves to be more than she can handle, or does he?

What unfolds is a cat and mouse game between the student and teacher that is about as messy a plot as a toddler after cake and ice cream at his or her birthday party. Initially, it isn't clear what Vance's motive is for his game of chess that he plays with our teacher, but one thing we do know: he's very smart, and for most of the movie, he stays one step ahead of our equally-intelligent teacher. Along the way, we learn of some very damning skeletons our "ethics" teacher has hiding in her closet that, in many ways, connects with our student. Only problem is that as good of a twist this revelation is to the plot, it was never Vance's initial motive for his vendetta with Professor Grandacre--when it should have been. Even after this reveal, Vance "still" doesn't much use this information to his advantage.

In the end, Vance falls for the professor's trap and pays the ultimate price. But the entire climactic sequence makes no sense given how intelligent our student is supposed to be. Cliche as it may be, even Stevie Wonder would have seen what the teacher was up to.

All that said, the film isn't great but was still very watchable, mainly because Willis does a great job in the female lead role. Blake Michael? Well, at least he's great on the eyes. I'll just leave it at that. Other small-time actors Wolfgang Bodison (A Few Good Men), Eric Nelsen (A Walk Among the Tombstones), Michelle DeFraites (All the Creatures Were Stirring), and Trevor St. John (Higher Learning) all make small appearances of little impact. That said, I was still disappointed in the way in which the writers simply wrote off the growing interaction between Vance and another student, Claire (DeFraites). Just when our story between the two was getting interesting, Clair leaves a heated "scene" never to be "seen" again. (No pun intended.) This was a huge mistake to the continuity of our story, but it pretty much sums up just how bad this film's plot is.

Only could get through 20 minutes

[karchick10 · 2/10 · 3 April 2019]

I know law and I know college. Even though it can get personal between a professor and student sometimes. This all began because of a mock trial where he did exactly how he should have gone at it. She even said the other girl was not following the book of laws. Fine be biased. Give him a B and move on! Bad plot.

Miss High And Mighty

[carolynocean · 2/10 · 28 October 2021]

This movie made me angry. It seems to me , that if Professor Willis had come down from her high horse , then maybe Vance could have been given the guidance and attention that he clearly needed , because he was an exceptional student , with great potential .

Instead , she obsessed with him , and focused on her own past experience , which should have taught her a valuable lesson , ( obviously not ), and then perhaps there would not be 2 dead people at the end of this movie .

Just because Vance came from " the wrong side of the tracks " , does not make him a " bad one " , but Professor High and Mighty could not see past her own obsession with " ethics" , and because of her incompetence , Vance's talent was wasted .

Awful film , with a terrible message .

I object

[vandeman-scott · 2/10 · 14 October 2020]

THE STUDENT is poorly written, poorly acted, poorly shot, and just plain boring. Never, even once, is any performance in this movie ever truly felt, so I didn't feel it either. The law students depicted are perhaps the worst, most inept potential attorneys ever, and legal principles are grossly misrepresented and/or misunderstood. God save us from the products of this law school.

This is a crappy, annoying movie with unlikable, unbelievable characters you won't care about. Spare yourself.

Law school is tough

[bkoganbing · 2/10 · 31 July 2019]

Blake Michael late of the Disney Channel stars in this film which is about as far from the Magic Kingdom as you can get. He's a law student and having a tough time of it. The fact he's also psychotic doesn't help.

Professor Alicia Leigh Willis is flunking him in her ethics course and he can't have it. He's under some great pressure from his mom and stepdad. So Blake embarks on a campaign of terror dredging up her past. She's now teaching law because back in the day she prosecuted a man who was executed and later turned out to be innocent.

What can I say but this is trashy and cheap without any entertainment value. The goofy teen from Dog With A Blog doesn't quite cut it as a psycho.

I expected Stan the talking dog to come in and straighten everything out.

The worst possible message

[arashboustani · 1/10 · 13 April 2019]

The message that I got is, if someone parents are not good, for sure kids would be bad. Weak story!

The kind that is bad with no apologies so it ends up entertaining.

[amheba · 6/10 · 18 August 2021]

This is a bad and cheap TV movie. I thought I was watching a Russian film with the same title but it was this one. The script is just terrible. An example, it opens with the first day of class at the university. The professor asks a question and the student answers it perfectly. So the professor tells him "I hope you're not one of those who relies on his good looks and charm to pass*. Like this it has many other memorable moments that actually had me bursting out laughing.

At no point does the movie try to be good. It's presented as what it is. So you know crazy things will happen and actually have fun sitting through them. I must say one of the few good things of the movie was the lead actress. She was able to keep a straight face through the script and act like this could actually happen.

It was okay until the end

[tatianaa-68186 · 3/10 · 13 November 2020]

I have never been on the villain's side so much and hated the "hero". The professor was absolute garbage, she stalked this student and put her nose in places it did not belong. I was on Vance's side the entire movie and he ended up dead. I think he should've won. Main reason being is because the professor is a nosy hypocrite. She preached about ethics and consequences, yet she ran away from hers. She's an absolute mess and just overall not a likable character whatsoever. Literally, not a single thing that I liked about her. Vance wasn't the best either but it seemed like if the prof gave him the grade he deserved he wouldn't have done anything. The prof acts as if the court room isn't about winning. You do whatever you can to prove innocence of your client, even if it isn't completely what you believe in. I would've given this movie like 7.5/10 if Vance won this "battle". The movie itself was predictable and easy to watch which personally does not bother me. The acting wasn't super cringy but it had its moments. The movie does have so many flaws when it comes to the law, and you would think a movie about law would do more research but it's not that big of a deal in my opinion, since literally every movie misrepresents the system.

Vance needs to be given a chance

[beaurichardhall · 10/10 · 26 April 2019]

Literally watch this movie. The last 15 minutes is so worth it. I was looking at the other review for this movie and they are uncultured swine. This movie has terrible acting, yes, but it's so bad it's good. It features the kid from lemonade mouth that one Disney movie everybody forgot about. Just watch it, the sexual tension is phenomenal.

Entertaining, Good But Not Great

[clintstevens · 6/10 · 22 March 2019]

Like reading a story in Ellery Queen's mystery magazine, not Shakespeare, but entertaining none the less.

As is the usual, there are moments that stretch belief, but hey, it's just a TV movie, so just enjoy it as such.

Michael Blake does a good job as the villain...good looking with an icy cold stare. If I was a teacher and had a student like him, I'd switch professions!

Mediocre movie made worse by dumb ending

[goods116 · 4/10 · 30 April 2019]

The movie is obviously B grade at best material, but reasonably watchable, an average watch to pass some time. But the ending is dumb. Some spoilers: The armed security guard has him cornered and asks the student to drop the gun. The officer then looks down to get the gun and the student overpowers him at that moment -- totally dumb. The office would have told him to raise up his arms, face the wall, or face down on the floor, or something like that. If you're going to have this scene, why make the officer have an IQ of 20? And I knew this was going to happen. Then at the end the teacher hits the student with the bat presumably knocking him out, then proceeds to walk away with her back turned, leaving the gun and bat unattended? Really? Dumb stuff like this is very annoying and further ruins an already low grade movie.

Lifetime Movie Reject

[eop1972 · 1/10 · 27 March 2019]

There's really very little to say about such a terrible movie. I don't know what possessed me to invest any time in this other than it served as a background distraction for getting ready in the morning. The acting is absolutely terrible. The "plot" is ludicrous. I can sum it up by saying there were only 15 minutes left to watch the conclusion - and I turned it off.

Don't waste your time!

[Rhonda92 · 1/10 · 8 August 2017]

She survived at the end. She shouldn't have survived at the end. She was biased towards that guy. She gave him a bad grade because she simply did not like him. Because this is not reality, I was rooting for her to die. I hate professors like her! She is a sucky professor. This movie could have been better developed as well. The actress who plays the professor made the movie worst. She in that role just added more to the unlikeability of the character.

It's an ok movie.

[ganthc-98557 · 5/10 · 24 May 2019]

Late night watch on Netflix. The plot has been done before...smart, hard working student who needs perfect grades gets a bad grade from a professor/teacher, then proceeds to go psycho. Drama ensues through a battle of wits. The acting is decent, with the student (with the ridiculous name of Vance Van Sickle), teacher, and the dean being the better of them. Escalating and provoking situations happen despite both the protagonist and antagonist being very smart and socially adept. The ending is predictable, but was still thrilling enough to watch. It's not a total waste of time, but it's just a rather empty movie, which is sad because it brought interesting themes of prosecutorial misconduct and unfair imprisonments. Sadly, these themes are just blips on the plot, and thinly applied motivations for characters instead of more deep view of how the characters could have dealt with them. Exploring these motives and character flaws might have made the movie a bit more original.

Better than I thought but predictable

[amyelancaster · 5/10 · 23 April 2019]

The movie overall was a little better than I thought it would be, however it was slightly predictable as this sort of story line has been covered before.

Worse

[fmwongmd · 2/10 · 6 May 2019]

Acting,story,directing are all atrocious. Very unconvincing and poorly directed.

mostly good movie

[jcroak-18174 · 7/10 · 26 January 2020]

I liked the movie, but I didn't like the husband or the students mom. The actor in the role of the husband just walked through his part with hardly any emotion. I didn't like the mother (a minor role) she seemed like a pretty messed up person. Two weeks after her husband's funeral she marries his brother. What a whore!

Save me, save me now!

[Aroura64 · 4/10 · 5 November 2019]

You know how it is, you have a streaming cold and all you can do is rest, gurgle away and watch endless nonsense on the television. This is where I find myself today, plonked in front of the idiot box. I tried searching for this film under the title "Tormenting Abigail" which is the name that it appeared under, on UK television. The only non gurgling activity that I have managed today, is adding this fact under the trivia section!

Ratings of this movie are lying

[abarain · 9/10 · 9 February 2021]

Given the storyline movie was great enough and cast was also fine, gave me old movies vibe movies that used to come out in late 2000s,Don't let yourself be restricted by rating of this movie to not watch it, Liked it, thumbs up

Worth the watch

[pmtelefon · 6/10 · 26 November 2020]

"The Student" is a solid entry in the lower budget Lifetime style thriller. The story developes well with very little downtime. The cast is likeable and they all do a nice job. If the filmmakers were able to get a little bigger of a budget, "The Student" could have been really good. As it is, it's good enough and definitely worth watching. Honorable mention: a dreamy Lindsay Hartley.

UM????

[danflorcyk · 3/10 · 21 March 2019]

Interesting, albeit derivative storyline . Way too many unbelievable moments.

Predictably bad movie

[funnycommentor · 1/10 · 30 November 2021]

The plot of the movie was ok, the characters were well-developed, the location (school) was nice. The acting was so cringy and amateur. The kills were awful. In my opinion, it wasn't a nice movie. It was a low-budget film that didn't had the potential to be a nice movie. Also, sometimes it was so boring. Actually, I felt that most scenes were so irrelevant that they were added in the movie, only to extent the duration of the film. The ending scene was expected.

unlikeable professor

[mary-179-677383 · 4/10 · 31 March 2024]

The movie wasn't bad but it wasn't enjoyable mostly because of Abigail the seems set from the beginning to dislike Vance. The professor Abigail that wants to fail an A grade student because he didn't cite some past case in his final assessment that she had some reason researched his previous assignments to know that he should have known and mentioned said case. The most hypocritical thing is Abigail's past that caused a wrongly convicted man to commit suicide yet she is qualified to run the ethics class now and be extremely strict. Vance cleverly broke into her house leaving really no evident that it was him yet she blames Vance immediately (yeah i know he did it, but you can't just accuse people with no evidence) She just has it in for the kid.

Look turns out Vance killed his other professed for giving him a B- but Abigail was so unlikeable that I was rooting for Vance. Abigail once again responsible for 2 deaths walks away free so where is the justice?

Vance was a smart man but the pressure to keep a scholarship, the trauma from his past and his toxic home environment. You actually have empathy for him. It's would have been a way more enjoyable movie if they made Abigail a better person and made her likeable.