'The Perfect Score' is far from perfect

The answer to the question, by the way, is D) none of the above. Their egos are way too big to collaborate, so it would take forever.

The SAT and all its surrounding frustrations and injustices are the focal points for a new movie, "The Perfect Score." In this slick and hip tale of crime, a six pack of high school students is each having issues with the test. The SAT glaringly stands in front of them, like an immovable bridge troll, blocking their paths to their respective goals.

Lacking the confidence or the desire to simply study harder and re-test, they instead decide to pull off a legendary heist by stealing the SAT Verification Master, which is a glorified euphemism for the answer key. They have the desire, the incentive and the plan.

This mostly likable sextet is led by Kyle (Chris Evans) who has a dream of becoming an architect and needs to score over 1400 to get into Cornell (what, no other schools offer architecture classes?). His best friend and first recruit is Matty (Bryan Greenberg from TV's "One Tree Hill"), who needs a better SAT score to get into the local state college so he can be matriculated along side his girlfriend, who is one year ahead of him and rapidly forgetting that she still has a high school boyfriend back home.

They accidentally enlist Roy (Leonardo Lam), who happens to listen in on their initial discussion of the plan. He's the stereotypical stoner, ranked last in his class, and not intending to go to college. However, he is intrigued by the plot and joins the team. Next, they must recruit Francesca (the indie film darling Scarlett Johansson), who is the most important cog in this machine. Her father works for the company that manufactures and administers the test, and she can get the team access into that iron fortress.

Anna and Desmond make up the final two members. Anna (Erika Christensen) has a perfect grade point average and is ranked second in her class, but can't handle the pressure of the test. During her most recent test, she completely froze up, earning herself a score too far from the benchmark she needs to get into Brown, which is a goal more for her parents than for her own ambitions.

Meanwhile, Desmond (pro hoops player Darius Miles) needs to hit the minimum to get into St. John's University so he can get a basketball scholarship and a launching pad to the NBA. If it were up to him, he'd just jump straight into the NBA, without the requisite stay at college, but his caricature of a tough mother won't let him.

So, the team is assembled, each from different backgrounds, but every one of them with the same burning purpose, to conquer the SAT. And in this age of questionable morality, where ends easily justify means, the best way is to cheat. Welcome to "Ocean's Eleven" for the MTV set. Leave your conscience at the door.

Not surprisingly, "The Perfect Score" is produced by MTV Films, the cinematic arm of the station that brought visualization to music. It has the slick and fast-paced style of a music video, with lots of trick photography and an iPod's worth of music to go along with the story.

The direction by Brian Robbins ("Varsity Blues") is competent, and the action and suspense sequences are taut and finely paced. He survives a handful of things that could have sunk this tale: Foremost, some inappropriate and lazy stereotyping of minorities, both Asian (via Roy) and black (via Desmond). Then there's a completely inane parody of "The Matrix" that utterly did not belong in this movie. It was as if a scene from an Heineken commercial broke out - completely inappropriate to the tone of the film. Normally, a single mistake can't ruin a good movie, but here, it almost saps everything likable about it.

The movie is ultimately rescued by its fine young performers, in particular, by Johansson ("Lost in Translation"), who hasn't taken a misstep yet in her movie career. She brings her indie credibility and her megawatt charm to this project and elevates everything to her level. The script and its message are standard rage-against-the-system fare; it should get eaten up voraciously by the teens to 20s demographic and to anyone familiar with the importance of a Number 2 pencil.