Review ‘Expelled’ From The Editor

Unfortunately, this one will have to settle for Expelled, whose chief raison d’etre seems to be the social media popularity of its star, Cameron Dallas. Having amassed a staggering 6 million-plus followers on Vine as well as equally impressive numbers on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, the teen idol actor/entrepreneur is clearly a force to be reckoned with. But his first big-screen starring vehicle is a ramshackle contraption that only serves to illustrate the difference between making an impact in brief Internet videos and feature films.

Actor and cameraman are often the same person in a Vine video, and Mr. Dallas is certainly at ease talking into the lens. His character, Felix, does it a lot. But then, so did Ferris Bueller (and Dobie Gillis, for that matter), usually with more reason and charm. In fact, Felix is generally a misjudged creation: not funny enough to keep his behavior toward friends, an ex and parents from seeming bratty.

Expelled is a teen comedy about Felix, a high school prankster, who gets expelled from his school and tries (very hard) to hide it from his parents.There’s not much to say about the plot or the story.

The film relies heavily on its young star’s presumed charm. He spars with the principal and, with an all-access smile, gets people to do things they shouldn’t. Felix’s brother (Marcus Johns, like Mr. Dallas, a star of Vine’s world of six-second skits) turns out to be even more reckless. But the tech-gadget-heavy plotting is so preposterously weak that it’s hard to look past the cheap laughs or half-baked direction (by a YouTube veteran,Alex Goyette).

Among those colluding in his schemes is his computer-hacking best friend (Matt Shively); his older brother (Marcus Johns), who has escaped from a private school resembling a maximum security prison; and a comely pizza-delivery girl (Lia Marie Johnson), who seems sensible enough to know better..

The complicated scenario, involving such things as changing grades, producing a counterfeit report card, drugging a teacher and faking a parent-teacher conference, lacks the exuberant high spirits of the film’s obvious inspiration. Suffice it to say that nothing here comes close to matching the giddy delight of Matthew Broderick lip-synching to “Twist and Shout” in the middle of a Chicago parade.

Some of these bits might work better looped on Vine (for example, Felix being slapped with a piece of food). Stretched over an 85-minute feature, however, Mr. Dallas’s brand of easy goofing just feels like coasting.

Witless and charmless, the film written and directed by Alex Goyette (better known as YouTube’s “Joule Thief”) proves that social media may not be the ideal incubator for big-screen talent.