110 min., TriStar Pictures/Phoenix Pictures
Ian McKellen, Brad Renfro, Bruce Davison, Elias Koteas, and David Schwimmer
Director: Bryan Singer
If you don't believe in the existence of evil, you have a lot to learn

Here are some of the reviews Apt Pupil received when it was released on October 23, 1998:
3 1/2 out of 4 Stars.-Cinescape Online reader "Ivan Elkwood"
3 1/2 out of 4 Stars- The New York Daily News
"Almost an A-plus"- The New York Daily News
3 out of 4 stars- The Journal News
3 1/2 out of 4 stars - The New York Post
"The best Stephen King screen in a long time" -Nashville Tennessean
"One of the boldest films of the year"
"Two thumbs down." -Siskel & Ebert
"2 out of 4 stars." -USA Today
$2.25 -CNN Showbiz [movies are rated on a scale from $0 (wait until it comes to video) to $7.50 (definitely worth your money)]

Here are some of the reviews Brad Renfro received for his performance in Apt Pupil when it was released on October 23, 1998:
Todd Bowden (played finely by Brad Renfro)...The performances are superb all around. Ian McKellen gives an award-worthy performance, and Brad Renfro is no slacker either at antagonizing him. -Cinescape Online reader "Ivan Elkwood"
"This is supposed to be a story about evil corrupting, yet Renfro's sullen performance makes this kid seem callow and unappealing from the beginning."- USA Today
"Brad Renfro in a benign performance" -Rough Cut
"Brad Renfro is apparently from the Ethan Hawke school of acting, which means he tilts his head, puts down his chin, and gazes upward with his eyes. We get the idea."- CNN Showbiz
"And if Mr. Renfro ("The Client," "Sleepers") can't match the complexity, he can put a diabolically wholesome face on Todd's budding viciousness. Both actors play their roles so trickily that tensions escalate until the horror grows unimaganatively gothic." -The New York Times
"Brad Renfro has an all-American glow as Todd, one that belies his ability to lie without blinking. Renfro captures that cusp-like quality of adolesence, in a character whose fascination with evil is that of a thrill-seeking child that changes into the appreciation of a more seasoned adult." -The Journal News
"And with the dead-eyed sangfroid only a 16-year-old suburbanite can pull off (and which Sleepers' Renfro pulls off with unnerving believability), Todd confronts Dussander and blackmails him..." -Entertainment Weekly
"Playing his eager student, Renfro is, scarily, all too convincing." -People
"I'm not giving it a thumbs up but I'm not just condemning it." -Roger Ebert
"I think that the movie is not just about the McKellen character, that you have to look at the kid and in that aspect, I think the film succeeds." -Gene Siskel

Here are some memorable quotes from the movie Apt Pupil:
"You watch boy, you play with fire." -Kurt Dussander
"Now we'll see what you're made of." - Kurt Dussander
"Your American ego has caused you to forget the whole reality of the situation. In Patin, I killed eight million Jews. To the whole world, I am a monster." -Kurt Dussander
"You have no idea what I can do." -Todd Bowden
"What did it feel like?" -Todd Bowden
"I want to hear about it. Everything. Everything they're afraid to show us in school." -Todd Bowden
"I have your fingerprints, I have your photographs." -Todd Bowden
"You did those things. You were there. No one could tell it better than you." -Todd Bowden