Thank goodness for Nick Cannon. While playing the only focused character in this confused teen montage, he makes this drag-of-a-movie not entirely unbearable. He manages to carry this formulaic bungling of tired clichés, a predictable plot and a generally boring cast entirely by his dominating and spontaneous performance, which, unfortunately for him, still leaves this production hanging by only a thread of interest.

Cannon is the “Underclassman”, or Tre Stokes: a 23-year-old bike cop that wants to become a detective. He hopes to prove himself by investigating an unsolved crime which requires him to go undercover as a student at an elite private high school known as Westbury, where waitresses serve plates of steamed crab for lunch and the kids play rugby instead of football.

It is here Tre makes enemies, friends, and even joins the basketball team. He falls for his Spanish teacher, makes acquaintance with an unadjusted wannabee (who just seems to serve as an outlet for the seemingly age old cliché of the nerdy white guy trying unsuccessfully to sound hip by using, as he put it, an “African American Vernacular”) and manages through all this to get to the root of the crime.

“Underclassman” touches on themes that could make for a meaningful story, such as that of an ambitious young boy trying to live up to his late father’s legacy, or the isolation of a street-smart black kid in an exclusive and predominantly white environment. But these ideas simply remain in the background, making way for the kind of cheap thrills that usually cater to the PG-13 crowd, like hot girls in miniskirts, souped up sports cars and fancy explosions.

To make matters worse, these distractions seem to come out of nowhere. The film skips over the whole suspense part. Instead, the scenes go from slow and playful to fast moving action, with little foreshadowing and absolutely no intensity. And since few of the supporting characters make any sort of impression on us, the action itself just isn’t very captivating.

Cannon has proved he can carry a movie (as well as executive produce and co-write this one) but unfortunately the movie isn’t worthy of his performance. There are enough elements here that if put together in the right manner, could end up as a solid story, but they are thrown together so loosely the effect is bland. Teenagers today may be satisfied with the kind of cheap distractions that substitute real cinema, but an actor as charming as Cannon shouldn’t be.