SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

kon10110 I go to a Chicago Public School and even though it is considered magnet it is not on the levels of the Selective Enrollment School such as WY. My school usually does pretty well at the tournaments and I can't say that I can condone what these students did. However, I can truthfully say that there have been a few times when during a competition I've wanted to beat the crap out of those WY kids (sorry) but that goes for a lot of kids from different schools. It is undoubtedly true that some school do have a greater advantage than others. For instance, the way I see it is that Whitney Young has an Academic Decathlon class (may be double period I'm not sure) so they can study during school and I assume they study after and on weekends like my team. However, my school does not have a class so that's just one more thing we have to worry about on top of decathlon. This means that our workload is larger. I would never dream of cheating but I can truly relate with these students and I smiled at the thought of WY's faces if they lost state, especially after dare I say the pompous attitudes I saw coming from the Whitney Young team during the Super quiz relay. So for all you Alums who are defending WY, the movie does make it seem worst that it is but don't lie to yourself and act like every Academic Decathlon team has equal chances to win. Its just not true.

michelle_1156 Oh my goodness, it's surprising how people totally ignorant of that situation and even the movie itself still take the time to comment. Whitney Young is no private school- it's a public school on the southwest side of Chicago that doesn't get nearly enough funding with kids that are just as poor as the 'rebels' from Steinmetz- and Steinmetz was no pseudo-Gandhi, just a bitter team that didn't dedicate the hours or resources needed to win.What occurred wasn't some glorious 'civil disobedience,' it was a group of kids who wanted to win the competition against a school who worked harder and did more. Puh-lease, this movie is an ill-fated attempt to be 'edgy' and skew morality for it's stupider viewers. There were no life-lessons involved, just a bunch of cheaters.

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.

iwatcheverything If you watched this film and came out of it wondering what it meant then you need to watch it again. The film is mildly entertaining but is the best work of lies I have ever seen. Most people can not keep a secret for five seconds let alone the amount of time these kids did. The best line is the very last one in the movie. I own this movie b/c you can get it for cheap at most stores now and it is not a bad film to own. Just don't let someone get the wrong idea when watching it b/c cheating of course is wrong and does not need to happen.