He steps into his classroom and meets a couple handfuls of the schools most ragtag students, who failed their English equivalency exams and must retake remedial English through the summer to pass the test and advance.

Of course, Schoop proves he isn't actually a qualified teacher, so he and the students strike a bargain to get the work done and prove each other out to be smarter than the rest of the school thinks.

There is a subplot with the advanced teacher in the next room Robin, played by a much thinner and hotter Kirstie Alley (TV's Fat Actress), whom Schoop wants to date, but she is already dating the school's assistant principal Gills, played by Robin Thomas (The Banger Sisters), the nemeses of the entire situation.

This picture was very amusing, but not b**ls out funny. The movie's big laughs have been done over and over since its release. So, returning to such jokes doesn't get a laugh from me anymore.

The ensemble cast is pretty solid comedically, without going overboard, including Courtney Thorne-Smith (TV's According to Jim) and Shawnee Smith (TV's Becker).

The characters were well written for the most part. Each of them were imperfect and had room to grow, but very little to learn from in the end.

This think director Carl Reiner (The Jerk), who makes his unusual cameo, missed a beat with the characters of Chainsaw, played by Dean Cameron, and Dave, played by Gary Riley. When exchange student Anna-Maria enters the picture, played by Fabiana Udenio (The Wedding Date), the two friends are falling over each other to impress her. She begins to warm up to them both, but that's it. We never see their personal storyline go anywhere further than that.

I thought it would have been better to allow Anna-Maria to create conflict between these two, which Mr. Schoop would have to come in and correct, cause the situation would disturb Chainsaw and Dave's learning. But, Reiner and the screenwriter opted not to and so the situation fizzles no where. They could have at least gone the other direction and let Chainsaw and Dave team Anna-Maria in Schoop's car or something. Oh well.

Kirstie Alley has sexy eyes, but she and Harmon don't really make a decent on screen couple. There was little chemistry between them, but that's all right. I didn't quite care for the "romance" part of the picture. It wasn't what the picture wanted to be.

It wanted to say a lot about education and care for those who have problems getting and giving an education. Alley's character didn't really fit into that. Harmon's character is the most well written and the strongest character in the story.

Overall, "Summer School" is a decent comedy, but it IS dated and some may not laugh out loud even as little as I did.