Opened: May 29, 2015

Directed by: Kyle Newman

Starring: Hailee Steinfeld, Sophie Turner, Jessica Alba, Samuel L. Jackson, Dove Cameron, Thomas Mann, Toby Sebastian, Gabriel Basso, Rachael Harris, Rob Huebel, Jaime King, Jason Drucker, Alexandra Krosney, Emma Holzer, Dan Fogler, Finesse Mitchell & Steve-O

Barely Lethal suffers from falling into the clichés it’s trying to make fun of, but its brilliant cast helps you forget the issues with the screenplay.

Megan Walsh (Hailee Steinfeld) is a trained child assassin longing for life as a regular teen. When a mission allows her to fake her death, she enrolls as a foreign exchange student and faces her biggest threat yet: high school.

Steinfeld is a delight and brings ingenuity to the role, even when her character is making you cringe. But she also brings the action and faces off a strong opponent in Sophie Turner’s Heather.

While the high school characters all fall into stereotypes and there are some concerningly weird adults, the final act of the film almost makes up for everything bad.

Final say: Without this cast, the film would be DOA. ★★★☆☆