Checkmate (I) (2010) User Reviews

Root Canal on film

[gabby_bm · 2/10 · 5 October 2012]

First off, this is a Christian film. So if you have problems with such films, bag this one. It's less heavy than "Soul Surfer" but the element is still there. I never felt they were preaching to me though. Just tossing it into the salad, so to speak.

I have to admit, I never finished this film. I spent an hour or so on it because I was compelled to see how it all would turn out, and the father was a bit of a mystery. But... The acting was horrible. The dialogue was horrible The staging and sets were horrible. Even the chess, on which the premise of this film is based, was horrible. I would rate it one star except the premise of the film was interesting enough to keep me watching, hoping for a payoff. Maybe one came. I don't know. After an hour, it just wasn't worth the trade to sit through the lousy acting and painful script.

But in the right hands, with a decent cast, director and budget, this film would hold some promise. I would watch it.

As it was, you're going to end up watching some Youth Ministry Group put on a show. They either needed to pray more for some talent or just give Kirk Cameron a call.

Bad acting, bad script, bad chess

[badchess-670-958963 · 2/10 · 17 September 2013]

OK, so I'm a chess player, which is why I watched this. And I did manage to watch the entire thing, a towering achievement.

First, the acting is bad. Really bad. "Take an average high school student, tell him to read something" bad. Amelia Varni would seem to be the only person with any acting ability, and the horrible dialog she is saddled with makes her seem bad.

The adult "actors" were even worse. Sound quality was all over the board. The writing and dialog was atrocious.

Continuity was horrible. It is always dangerous to feature chess clocks, as that makes continuity a measurable factor. The climactic game, for instance, (judging by the chess clock) lasts all of two minutes.

From a chess players viewpoint, it is clear the movie was made my someone who knows nothing about chess, or chess tournaments. I was moderately amused to see one of the games starting with the chess clocks being a half hour different (i.e. white's clock showed 3:30, blacks showed 3:03 on the first move).

At random the kid gets a job offer of $15 an hour now, and $32 when you graduate from high school. The kid gets inducted into some strange chess club, with challenges delivered by envelope. After the first game, it is never mentioned again.

I admit, this review is poorly written and scattered. But it is more coherent and better written than the movie. You have been warned. It is not the "tops."

SPOILER ALERT

It was obvious from move one, that the father ("Don't let your father see you playing chess.") would wind up being a good player that would come around and give his expertise to his son. Turns out the father was not just good at chess, but a Grandmaster, who was so involved with chess that he lost his car and his job, etc. Apparently the movie makers think chess is akin to crack.

This movie is definitely "Not Tops"

[ez-cutler · 30 October 2012]

I was only able to stomach 30 distracted minutes of the atrocious acting and music. The plot idea is interesting, with a classic conflict idea; a motivated young man feels he has discovered a path to success but strained relationships in his life cloud his decisions. As a chess fan, I enjoy possible chess analogies used well. This movie does it superficially.

Incidentally, the first match played (not a spoiler because I will not name the players or who moved what), of course ends in "checkmate" but the actual pieces do not reflect mate. The play might yield a concession but not a checkmate. This really bothers me, since the name of the movie is checkmate.

The storyline has potential, I don't even think it needs a large budget, just better acting, a better screenplay, and someone who knows chess

Worst chess

[harish-srinivasan · 1/10 · 10 July 2020]

Directors who cannot fact check simple things like what is checkmate in scenes, who cannot insist on basic standards don't deserve their movie to be watched.