A few days ago, I read about Michael Jordan watching his son play basketball in some championship game or something, but I don’t remember the specifics (shows you how much we care about things outside the film world doesn’t it?)
Anyway his son plays for a Chicago High School called Whitney Young. That got me thinking, “where had I heard that name before?”. Well I was on my way to work and then it hit me. There was a movie with Jeff Daniels and Jena Malone called Cheaters. It was an HBO film (written/directed by John Stockwell: “Cougar” in Top Gun) about an inner-city Chicago high school who cheats on The United States Academic Decathlon. They are a severe underdog in the education system because they have no funding or teachers who care about the students…and the heavy weight school in their district who wins the Decathlon every year is that same Whitney Young (see the reference?).
Now as compelling as that description sounds, it is actually a very good movie. I caught on HBO about 8 years ago at about 3 in the morning. I couldn’t sleep so I put on the TV and it just so happened, that movie was about to start. I like Jeff Daniels so I thought I’d give it a chance. Well I ended up watching the whole thing, then I bought the DVD a few days later because I liked it so much. Here’s the trailer, but be warned that this doesn’t do the movie any more credit than my synopsis above…but the movie is still good, trust me.
I’ll give a disclaimer that I don’t think this movie is for everyone but it is worth a rent. Its kind of a slow movie so some of you out there won’t like it, and had I seen this movie at any other time I probably wouldn’t have either, but I’ll chalk it up to the fact that some movies can seem better when you watch them very early in the morning. That’s the reason I bought The Ringer and 50 First Dates…I just don’t like to tell many people about that.
So, has anyone out there seen this movie, or have any 3AM favorites that you’d like to share?
