Ever watched a movie that started off really good but fizzled out halfway into the movie? Well Cheats is exactly this kind of movie. Originally scheduled for a theatrical release, the film actually appeared as a brand new movie first on Cinemax. Now arriving on DVD one can see why the film never made it out to theaters.
The movie has a great premise that is fresh and original. A group of friends from early childhood all the way to their senior year form a collective group of cheaters. These four guys take cheating to a professional form and are led by head cheatman Handsome Davis (Trevor Fehrman). Each member of the group has a specific reason for being a member. For example there's Applebee/the crib master (Starr), the guy who writes crazy small. In one scene we witness the entire chemistry element chart written clearly onto a gum wrapper. The youngest of the Lawrence brothers plays the tough guy and adversary to Applebee in Victor. Lastly there's the token chubby kid noone wants to befriend in kindergarten whom Handsome makes friends with from day one, Sammy.
The movie focuses on the final year of High School and witnesses the group getting closer and closer to becoming expelled. Mary Tyler Moore chimes in as the Headmaster of the private school. The tension and comedy between her and Handsome in the first thirty minutes is wonderful. However something happens in the middle of the film. It's as if the writers ran out of ways to connect the dots. Suddenly the movie turns into a power struggle/battle amongst the group and loses much of its edge. The movie would have succeeded had it remained a comedy and not tried to throw in some drama. Furthermore there's some really crude remarks about adoption in the movie that are totally uncalled for and a cheap shot.
I really liked this film at first and became so disenchanted with its pacing and direction towards the end. In fact I can't really even remember how it ended at this point. I do remember many of the more funny scenes in the beginning, which makes this movie a rental at best.
The Disc:
New Line provided us with a true screener this time around so we were unable to really try out any of the DVD features. However material provided to us indicate there will be BOTH DD 5.1 and DTS Surround Sound. You know we love DTS here but this movie doesn't exactly have the kind of action needed to justify that.
There will also be deleted/alternate scenes, a Behind the Scenes Documentary and the trailer. Not exactly alot of content but pretty much expected for a film that failed to goto the theaters.
bottom line:
This movie had alot of potential but somewhere in the process got sidetracked. We imagine there was alot of beauracy at work here with the suits battlings the creative minds. In any case it is a rental when nothing else more intersting is available.
2 out of 5
By - Brian Gray
