Mix together Rushmore, Thumbsucker, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, sprinkle in some odd classics but go real light on creativity and originality, and you got Charlie Bartlett. The movie is a mess. Lots of moments stolen from other "High School movies" but no clarity and the movie is completely ridiculous and unrealistic; moments like Charlie (and shortly after the whole school) going completely ape on what was supposedly a LOW dosage of ritalin were very frustrating. But most importantly, it is completely uninspired and surprisingly boring. You know there's something wrong when even Robert Downey Jr. is uninteresting in a character that made me wonder why he chose to do the movie in the first place. Moments like the musical tribute to Harold and Maude ("If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out")just made me think: "Why am I watching this movie; I should be watching that one" which made it very hard to appreciate the few moments that were good.