A high school outcast (D.J. Qualls of Road Trip) decides to get himself expelled and winds up in prison, where a street-smart cell mate (Eddie Griffin) teaches him how to whip people with nothing but a dirty look. This dumb little comedy, the first feature of director Ed Decter, sometimes suggests Jerry Lewis’s The Nutty Professor. It isn’t very good, but it doesn’t seem to care, which turns out to be rather refreshing. David Kendall wrote the script; with Zooey Deschanel, Eliza Dushku, Illeana Douglas, and Lyle Lovett as the hero’s father. 100 min. (JR)