Hatley High

In the town of North Hatley, chess mania has taken over the local high school. New student Tommy Linklater likes to do his magic tricks. He is recruited for the chess team, The Knights, due to his late mother's legendary chess skills. Hyacinthe Marquez (Rachelle Lefevre) is the head cheerleader and honor student.

This has a fun satire premise of switching the coolness factor between jocks and the chess club. It's kinda funny for a little while but it gets repetitive. The writing is not funny enough. Other than Lefevre, the cast isn't good enough. It's got one good idea but it fails to build on it.

This is a great movie, long overlooked. A small town high school is nuts about chess and everybody plays The big showdown comes when a team from the Soviet Union is flown in to play the big match. The coach for Hatley High is a Soviet defector who defected during the last chess match between the two teams. The new Russian coach is a Russian nationalist, and the rivalry is personal.

On the night before the big showdown, the Russian team captain, Anya Petrovich, played by Ilona Elkin, seduces the Hatley High captain, played by James A. Woods, and tricks him by putting handcuffs on him and locking in the principal's office. When the Hatley High Captain does not appear for the big final match, the Hatley High team will be forfeited unless somebody can be pulled off the bench to play the big final game.

The creators of this movie could have used a real chess consultant. Many of the moves shown on the chess board are illegal. Black moves first in the first game and, although they use chess terms like Sicilian Defense and Budapest Defense, the moves shown on the board are nothing like those openings.

However, we can overlook these defects because this movie teaches us chess players important lessons about how a movie about a high school chess match can be made exciting and interesting to the general non-chess playing audience.

Sam Sloan

I had never heard of this movie until last Saturday when it was playing on one of my movie channels. A quick trip to IMDb.com produced a rating of 6.3/10 and only 72 votes. The user comments gave me hope, however, and I decided to give it a try. Once again, a low budget Canadian movie has proved to be a quirky little gem of a movie. We laughed all the way through this movie (Canadians might have a strange sense of humour though - I am not sure). The acting and writing were solid and music was used in a way that added a lot of humour to the movie. This movie is a satire of other movies (typical high school sports movies or new kid in town movies) but it is not just full of superficial jokes - it has more depth to it because of the real issues that it addresses. Mostly, though, it is just very funny. The fact that no one has heard of this movie but everyone has probably heard of White Chicks (No, I have not seen it but I am pretty sure it is not nearly as funny as this movie - probably not even 10% as funny) just proves to me again that star power still beats quality in the film industry. I hope that their next collaborations (15/Love and House) are just as good.

Now, are you done listening to me? Good - now go out and rent this movie! :)

I really loved this movie. One of the best "feel-good" movies I've seen. Loved the cheesiness, and the synth-y music used. Also how it was in Canada! I liked how there were no overly dramatic emotional scenes. This made it feel like I was on vacation. It was relaxing, and very funny. Nicholas Wright was engaging and endearing, and I especially liked the British guy Trevor and his mute "best mate" Darryl. The only thing I disliked was Hyachinth - she seemed forced and character too good to be true. I wish more people knew about this movie. There's not even a Facebook fan page for it!

Anyway - watch it. :)

I saw this at The San Diego Film Festival, and i think it was the best movie there. Everything about it was just brilliant. The acting was all top notch from everybody. I considered the movie an ensemble piece because everybody was just equally as good as the next person. The screen writing was also awesome. It was extremely Rushmore-esqu. But for me thats a good thing. After i saw the movie i met the director, and he's one of the nicest guys anyone could ever meet. I really hope this gets a U.S. release. I actually think if marketed right, this could become the next Napolian Dynamite (only this movie is much better). Now i just have to wait for their next movie(Prom Wars).