IMDb RATING
6.9/10
7.7K
YOUR RATING
Ex-felon, Eugene Brown, establishes a Chess Club for inner city teenagers in Washington, D.C.Ex-felon, Eugene Brown, establishes a Chess Club for inner city teenagers in Washington, D.C.Ex-felon, Eugene Brown, establishes a Chess Club for inner city teenagers in Washington, D.C.
- Awards
- 2 nominations
Derrick L. McMillon
- Billy West
- (as Derrick McMillon)
Alani Ilongwe
- Clifton
- (as Carlton Byrd)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaReal life Eugene Brown has cameo at registration desk in final tournament sequence.
- GoofsThe radio station is identified as KCAL. Yet the radio station is in Virginia. Radio and TV stations in the eastern US have call letters that start with "W". Radio stations in the western US start with "K". Virginia is an eastern state, therefore, its radio stations start with a "W", and NOT a "K".
- SoundtracksDays Undone
Written by Michael Gennaro Catanese and Michael Richard Post
Performed by The Jay Vons
Featured review
Different enough from the previous "helping inner city kids" movies to make it interesting and worth seeing. Never went cheesy.
"This is a king. This is your life. One mistake and it can be taken away." Eugene Brown (Gooding Jr.) is an ex-felon who is struggling to find a job and relate to his kids. After finding a job as a high school janitor he is asked to watch the detention kids one day until they can find a replacement. When he brings up the topic of chess he begins to change the lives of the "troubled kids" forever. I love movies based on true stories, but I was worried about seeing this going in. One one hand a true story with Cuba Gooding Jr, that is good. On the other hand though I thought how many times can they remake Lean On Me? After movies like that one and Dangerous Minds, Freedom Writers, Fame, etc... I wondered how different can this one be. While I have to admit it wasn't 100% different it was very very good and much much better then I was expecting. The best part about this movie is that it stayed just a step or two away from being way to cheesy to be enjoyed but it did a good job of changing things just enough to keep it feeling real while keeping the emotion that it needed. Different enough from the previous "helping inner city kids" movies to make it interesting and worth seeing. Overall, very good and never took the over-the-top cheesy way out that so many of these types of movies do. That is a good thing and because of that I highly recommend the movie. I give this an A-.
helpful•234
- cosmo_tiger
- Feb 8, 2014
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Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $6,547
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $4,231
- Jan 19, 2014
- Gross worldwide
- $44,161
- Runtime1 hour 40 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.78 : 1
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