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Christopher "Kid" Reid and Christopher "Play" Martin in Class Act.

For the record label, see Class Act Records

Class Act is a 1992 comedy motion picture, released by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was directed by Randall Miller and starred hip hop musicians Kid 'n Play. The film is an urban retelling of the fairy tale The Prince and the Pauper.

Genius high school student Duncan Pinderhughes (Christopher "Kid" Reid) is getting ready for graduation, but is somewhat disheartened to find out that, despite his perfect SAT and 4.0 GPA, Harvard will not admit him unless he passes phys ed. Ex-convict "Blade" Brown (Christopher "Play" Martin) is released from jail, and told by his parole officer that the condition of his release is satisfactory graduation from high school. A mishap results in their pictures being swapped on their permanent records. In effect, Blade is surprised to find out that he is being placed in Gifted classes, while Duncan is shocked to be placed in minimal classes with substandard conditions and miscreants for classmates.

Blade realizes this, and sees Duncan as his ticket permanently out of jail, since Duncan could pass his classes with ease. He transforms Duncan into a version of himself with dreadlocks, and does his best to teach Duncan how to act and talk like a gangsta. Having no grasp of hip hop culture, Duncan's parents begin to worry about their son's new "friend"; his father especially, beginning to suspect Duncan is gay.

Blade manages to smooth-talk his way through his advanced classes, even successfully executing a dissertation on sexual intercourse (one of his favorite subjects). Duncan ends up running into one of Blade's former homeys, Wedge, and gets in trouble, but also ends up discovering an uncanny ability to kick field goals, and joins the school's football team. Both Blade and Duncan end up with girlfriends that the other would have, with Blade smooth-talking the intelligent but excitement-seeking Ellen, and Duncan being pursued by the wild Damita.

Blade ends up getting in trouble with a drug lord that he worked with before his incarceration, and the movie climaxes in a chase involving Blade, Duncan, their girlfriends and one of Blade's buddies. When the girlfriends realize that their men are swapped, both end up dumped. Still, Duncan manages to knock out Wedge, while Blade handles the drug lord, but all end up in jail.

After the mixup is fixed up, Blade, Duncan and company are all set free. In an anti-climax, Duncan and Blade both enter a Brain Bowl in an effort to get Blade back with Ellen. They succeed when Blade answers a tiebreaker question to win the competition, recalling a choice tidbit Ellen once told him. Afterward, both couples end up together. In a final scene, Duncan's dad finds out the hard way that Duncan is definitely not gay by catching him and Damita having sex in Duncan's bedroom.

In the epilogue, the audience finds out that Blade graduated and went to college, while Duncan got a football scholarship to Stanford.

• Class Act at the Internet Movie Database

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