To Sir, with Love II

Proof that Sidney Poitier does not always have the Midas touch. You knew all along that Mark Thackery was going to succeed, so no surprises there, and no real satisfaction either. But the BIG TURN-OFF was the sheer idealism of the movie. The teens Thackery is trying to convert just aren't gritty and dirty enough. The moment when Thackery returned from his short retrenchment and the class began chanting 'Thackery' in unison epitomised that for me. It was a moment was total unrealism. This movie just did not work, despite good intentions I'm sure. 4 out of 10 because I'm not feeling generous.

I saw To Sir, With Love 1 when I was young, and it stayed with me. I always wanted a teacher like Mark Thackery, but I was never lucky enough to encounter one. I had no ideal that they had made the second one until one day, I was lucky enough to catch it on Starz! Three people at my house sat mesmerized by Sidney Poitier as Mark Thackery's second chance after being retired from English schools to help kids that needed help and had been discarded from life. I found it to be very believable, and so did my friends. We would all recommend this movie. If you get a chance to see it, watch it. It's definitely worth your time.

Flawed but watchable sequel to the phenomenally successful 1967 movie. Probably the major flaw of this television sequel is it's tenuous links with the original. After cameos from Lulu and Judy Geeson, in almost every respect this could be an entirely different film. With Poitier as Thackeray plunged into a Chicago school, there is a nice mention of Blackboard Jungle by one of the teachers, but after that everything we've previously come to expect from a Sidney Poitier film is left at the door. While this movie does contain the sentimentality of the original, its short length means we never really get to know the pupils and so this feels forced. Also, unlike the original, there is no sense of redemption or development for the pupils, who act pretty much the same at the climax as they did at the start of the film. Where it veers far out of the expected range is in its depiction of street violence, which does give a genuine racial tone to the proceedings, and seems more natural than in some previous offerings. The racial dynamic between Poitier as the England-acclimatised teacher and Travanti as the student who leads a gang to survive is strong. However, the rigid morality of Thackeray this time around lends Sidney a limited set of parameters in which to reenact his role.

After 30 years at his old school in England, Mark Thackary leaves on mandatory retirement, and gets a job teaching in Chicago. Lulu and Judy Geeson are back reprising their roles from the original for the beginning send-off. The Chicago coming-of-age scenes are mostly predictable, but Poitier is as smooth as ever, and the two main brothers do a marvelous job. The original was a great movie. This sequel is an enjoyable time-passer. Daniel J. Travanti does a good job as the feckless principal.

Just watched this, the TV-movie sequel to To Sir, with Love, on YouTube just now. It begins back in London where Mark Thackeray (Sidney Poitier) retires after 30 years from the high school he taught where we first met him along with his now-former students played once again by Judy Geeson and Lulu. We then see him go to Chicago, my birthtown, where he will now be teaching a new bunch of problem students of various races. Do I get a sense of deja vu here? To be honest, nothing can touch the original in terms of charm and entertainment but Poitier is still a fine actor in his twilight years and the players playing his students this time do have their chance to shine. And this time, we get a little background on what Sir had been doing before that fateful time he first set foot in that English school so that's a plus. Since this was a network production with all that entails concerning standards, there's no realistic-like dialogue which would probably be pretty profane concerning the students but there's still some believability in the way these pupils put themselves out there in talking about themselves. And despite the limited running time with commercials being considered during each fade-in, director Peter Bogdanovich manages to make each scene count. So on that note, To Sir, with Love II is at the least worth a look. And since this is the last day of Black History Month, I probably will take a break from reviewing another film involving African-Americans for a while. But if you like my reviews and are reading this under my username, all I'll say now is watch this space for anything further I may comment on in the future...