Attempts to subvert some of the standard tropes never really come off and it's light on laughs...

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 4, 2019

The great set-up could, and really should, have delivered a better movie than it did, but while it's unlikely to be remembered alongside the films it delights in name-checking, there's enjoyment to be had.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 6, 2019

It is not nearly as intelligent as Mean Girls, but the ass-kicking is still fun to watch.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 20, 2017

I wish its absurdity trumped its melodrama more consistently.

| Original Score: C+ | Feb 22, 2016

There are some nifty one-liners, too, from fleeting, anti-Canadian jibe, 'Take back Bieber', to this surreal putdown, 'You may have them fooled, but you and I both know that you are sketchier than a 2am waffle house'.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 5, 2015

From the grisly punning title to the low-rent action sequences, this really is less fun than double maths.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 30, 2015

[A] bubbly but very lightweight high-school comedy.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 28, 2015

Charming and funny, a wonderfully sweet and silly mashup of spy stuff and high-school comedies, like if John Hughes made a James Bond movie.

| Aug 28, 2015

Slapdash and proud of it, this is one to watch with brains off and emoji menus on.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 27, 2015

The film pokes fun at teen movies, but it also adopts many of the same clichs and stereotypes, resulting in a high-school flick that is both knowing and formulaic at the same time.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 27, 2015

Hardly groundbreaking but this high-school actioner ghosts by on its charm and sense of fun.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 27, 2015

Once in a while, the film does flash some unexpected wit ...

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 27, 2015

All the high-concept gloss in the world can't obscure that this is a flat-footed retread of the very films Megan avidly watches in preparation for her latest "mission".

| Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 27, 2015

There are some funny moments, and Steinfeld herself is a winning presence - but a movie like this has to be more densely packed with gags and observations.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 27, 2015

Homage to teen movies has comic violence, sex, profanity.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 11, 2015

"Barely Lethal" may not ever reach the hallowed heights of the films Megan dreams of modeling her own adolescence after, but it is nonetheless a perfectly respectful entry in the teen-comedy subgenre.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 4, 2015

The film is all about deception and betrayal, and the biggest one is this B film misusing its A star cast.

| Original Score: 2/10 | Jun 2, 2015

You're better off watching Kingsman and The Breakfast Club back to back and calling it a night.

| Original Score: C+ | Jun 2, 2015

A fun-enough teen action comedy.

| Jun 1, 2015

Barely Lethal couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a gonzo action flick or a self-aware teen movie. [It's] too pedestrian to be Kick-Ass, and not nearly as smart as Mean Girls.

| Original Score: 3/10 | May 31, 2015