Hatley High
Hatley High
| 23 September 2003 (USA)
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The Canadian teen comedy Hatley High sends up high school sports rituals by placing a most unlikely competitive game at the center of its story: that of chess. Tommy (Nicholas Wright) is a new arrival in his parents' hometown of Hatley, whose mother recently died. He discovers, after the fact, that his mom was once a chess pro and thus a legend in the community. Tommy's chess-fixated peers accept him almost instantly, inferring that he must have inherited his dear mother's skills, but in time Tommy carves out a niche for himself independently of his mom's legacy, and strikes up an enduring romance with Hyacinthe (Rachelle Lefevre) a "chess cheerleader." Two fictional British filmmakers "frame" the tale by filming it for a documentary that they are producing, and thus provide witty, ongoing narration.

Reviews
Hellen

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

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NekoHomey

Purely Joyful Movie!

Anoushka Slater

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

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Quiet Muffin

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

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SnoopyStyle

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.

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Samuel Sloan

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

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nessie_monster

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! :)

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landon-1

Staged in a small town that worships chess this movie kept me smiling all the way through. Even though it comes off as a play on the typical American "worship the football goods" type movie there are many of details that might not be apparent at first viewing. A combination of familial loss, new town acclimatization, cold war history and rook envy come together well in a movie fit for pretty much everyone.The main character, Tommy, did a good job of coming across as a complicated young man who has the initial idea of who he is but still has the rough edges to work on. Hyacinth, well, other than everyone falling in love with her while she keeps Tommy dancing, I expect to see her again in more movies as she has a good energy that is transferred here.This is a movie that makes me glad to be a Canadian!

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