Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Jemima It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

vitachiel What annoyed me about this movie is that it tries very hard to be streetwise and cool, but at the same time wants to tell a true story right and on top of that trying to deliver an image that justifies the main characters' moral standpoints. Naturally, all this makes things a bit messy. The thing that most annoyed me however, was the clear-cut division on ethnic grounds. The brightest students at Steinmetz are all white and so is their hero teacher. Most of the other students are black and are portrayed in a very stereotypical manner. Probably this was not done on purpose, but that may be all the more concerning. I can understand that the makers wanted to stick to the original, real life characters, but it wouldn't have bothered me if they'd give some of the bright students a bit more colour. They justly spotlighted the unfair competition between poor and rich schools, but failed to exorcise their unconscious racial prejudices.

maydmaryn I can see how some might find this film rewarding - watching the little guy take down the overbearing elitists that win every year. Those homogeneous white kids at Whitney Young all wear button down shirts, and come from privileged backgrounds. And that Larry Minkoff, he just wanted his team to crush the other schools. That all makes nice drama, but has little to do with the actual story. Sure, Cheaters, is based on a true story, but its omissions and perversions of the truth make it little more than a piece of trash.You won't be surprised to learn that I actually went to Whitney Young. When I first saw HBO's incarnation of my high school, I had to laugh – WY is a Chicago Public School (although a magnet) with a minority of white students and not an Oxford shirt to be found. I got over it pretty quickly, however, when the film turned into a character assassination of a man that had died tragically the previous year and kids that had worked their butts off to get where they were. Cheaters portrays WY as claiming Steinmetz cheated because they beat them. In reality, Steinmetz was the only school in the competition to improve – literally every other competing school's scores, including WY, had dropped significantly. Young raised the charge, but they were not alone in thinking something other than increased study time at Steinmetz's had happened.I appreciate how difficult it can be for neighborhood schools to compete with magnet schools, which select students based on test scores and are given more flexibility with curriculum. It provides a disparity that can be very difficult or even impossible to overcome. The ultimate message of Cheaters, however, seems to be that sometimes you need to cheat to succeed. I'm not really sure that's an ideal to strive toward. Also, it's portrayal of Larry Minkoff was very hurtful to his family, friends, and everyone who knew him for the kind and generous man he actually was. This film has made me watch films that claim to be "true stories" or based thereon with a much more critical eye. I hope anyone who reads this will take Cheaters with a very large grain of salt.

LFChachere I attended Whitney Young H.S. and was a member of the 1st Whitney Young Academic Decathlon team in 1982; the first year this competition was nationalized. I was very interested to see this movie as I did not even realize Whitney Young had continued to win the Illinois competition.Had it not been for the misrepresentations in this movie, I probably would have given it a much better rating.For those outside of the Chicago area, basically Whitney Young AND Steinmetz are BOTH Chicago Public high schools. The difference is that Whitney Young is a magnet school, where you apply and get accepted on the basis of merit of your grades in elementary school, whereas Steinmetz is a district school which accepts anybody who lives in the neighborhood. Whitney Young is NOT a privileged school filled with rich kids (some of the people making comments, after seeing this movie, even had the impression that it might be private and/or suburban.) The overwhelming majority of my classmates were minorities, with nearly 70% black. As a matter of fact, there were probably more minorities at Whitney Young than Steinmetz, which is located in a white neighborhood on the north side of the city. I was disgusted by the Jeff Daniels' rant implying that rich suburbans were sending their kids into the city to attend a public high school; some line about this school being a "fortress in the city" -- The majority of kids who attend Whitney Young are from middle class and poor families. I just could not believe that Hollywood could stoop so low, to portray high achieving public inner city public school city kids as privileged snobs, for the apparent purpose of getting the audience to sympathize more with the Steinmetz kids .. to make us feel that the kids being cheated deserved to be cheated.And Whitney Young having cheerleaders at this event .. PLEASE .. that's just insulting the intelligence of the viewers.The reason that Whitney Young would consistently beat out other Chicago schools year after year is very simple: There is a system in place in Chicago with centralized magnet schools such as Young, Lane Tech, where all of the A students from grade schools across the city can attend and be in classes with each other ... for the purpose of having enough kids in the same place to provide advanced courses.The professor at Steinmetz who helped his students cheat, basically tried to cheat kids at another school who worked VERY hard to earn their spot, and that stinks. This film did a very good job at desensitizing the audience about the injustice done to the kids who actually EARNED the win, in order to help add sympathy to the Steinmetz students who were NOT underprivileged, but simply chose either NOT to apply to Whitney Young, or simply did not work for the grades to get into Whitney Young in the first place.The movie tries to make you feel sympathy for the cheaters, rather than the victims of the cheating. What a wonderful message for America.

Roxburyfunny1 It's scary and it's shocking what one school had to go through just to be the best. Did i agree with what they did? no. but look at they had everything short of mini bar's and a juice room they had all the latest stuff and this one school is struggling just to keep running. These students, these kids were determined to be the best no matter what i took. It is a great movie and a good yet sad story of how these kids were driven to cheat and how they just wanted to feel and to know what it was like at the top. Recommended for those who want to watch something new a fresh! ~!