Cheats (2002)

Four high school friends use their various skills to create a crack team of academic cheaters in Cheats: Handsome (Trevor Fehrman), the ringleader who finds a way to squirrel out of anything; Sammy (Elden Henson), his childhood cohort, who's starting to wonder if honest effort might be more rewarding than cheating; Victor (Matthew Lawrence), an up-and-coming thug with good looks; and Applebee (Martin Starr), who writes the smallest and most precise crib notes of all time. They've held it together until their senior year, when their conflicting morals create rifts that threaten their solidarity. Cheats wants to be a combination of a classic heist flick and a celebration of the outsider, like Rushmore; unfortunately, everything about the movie feels false, from its depiction of the high school hierarchy to the implausible schemes. Also featuring Mary Tyler Moore as the school principal. --Bret Fetzer Amazon.com

Crippled elves do dance around a devil covered by blue dress, dairy causes diarrhea, chunky, creamy, butter cheese

This story is a basic one. It's about the kids we all knew in school. It's about the three or four schemers who would do anything to shirk responsibility and flout the rules as they cheated their way through classes. If it wasn't a crib-sheet, it was writing on their hands. Maybe it was getting to class early and writing on the desk. We all knew that guy, and in this movie that guy is a master the likes of which we never experienced.

Handsome Davis (Trevor Fehrman) is the leader of a foursome of cheating friends. He's a charismatic figure who has been cheating with one friend, Sammy, since Kindergarten, and has picked up two accomplices in High School, Victor and Applebee (who writes crazy small).

They are legendary at school, like Ferris Bueller, and everyone knows of their exploits. But when the principal has a locksmith change the locks on every door in the school, the boys secret weapon, a duplicate janitor's key, becomes a paperweight.

Before the boys move towards graduation, they will find that cheating on everything will require more than they had imagined. They'll have to lie, steal, and trick people into helping them. They'll also learn some harsh lessons about growing up along the way. If it isn't tricking the foreign janitor, or coming up with a ridiculous story about a candy bar alibi, it's some other insane, wacky situation that the boys manage to wiggle out of like Houdini. Watching Handsome play his Physics teacher, the principal, his friends, little kids, and even his own father is hilarious. Fehrman nailed the role with his suave confidence and conniving leadership abilities, a persona that commands more attention than any school administrator, let alone any students who dares consider themselves a peer.

For the final cheat alone, I think this movie is well worth it. Even if the movie teaches an eventual lesson about the perils of cheating, it also happens to teach the viewer something serious, something beneficial. The boys make wonderful use of audio mnemonics to pull off the greatest cheat of all time. It's a great instructional tool for studying, and a technique that should be more widely used throughout academics. June 5, 2008

decent to good, not awesome

true story thats a plus, good actors, another plus.
dont recall seeing many girls in this
a plus to some.
fun storyline
not behavoir I would encourage--but have no problem enjoying it in a movie
deffinatly worth a few bucks, as long as these charters dont turn into role models for youngsters
grinably funny, not lol May 10, 2008

good movie, that guy Bob Loblaw needs to spend his time doing something else

well i liked this movie, it is one of my favorite almost unheard of comedys. I would also like to add that the guy Bob Loblaw needs to spend his time doing something better with his life... i mean who besides someone who is middle-aged, living in their parent's basement, and waits on line all day took get a harry potter book, even bothers to write something that long. May 11, 2007

Fun Movie... not great, but defintely fun...

I do not understand why reviewers have to insult those who liked this movie. Is it a classic comedy? Not by any means, but it worked for what it was.

I like many other reviewers stumbled upon this on television (HBO). I laughed pretty hard. My wife watched with me and she also found it hilarious.

HBO goes into ruts with the movies it put on, and we ended up watching this a few times, b/c we simply found it funny and enjoyable.

The writing is fun, the acting is good, and it was shot pretty well. If you want a comedy that has a good chance at making you laugh, and do not expect a masterpiece, you just might find this movie as fun as my wife and I did. August 16, 2006

How Can You Not Enjoy this Movie????

This movie is without a doubt, a hidden classic of recent years that hardly anyone has heard of. Reminds me of 80's classics like The Chocolate War and even Three O'Clock High. You can't even compare it to Ferris Bueller. Bueller stands alone. And I am not saying it is as good or better than the above mentioned films but it makes a valiant effort. I applaud the cast and crew of this film for attempting something different. The world needs another awful Ben Stiller or Owen Wilson comedy like we need another ice age. August 26, 2005

More reviews at Amazon.com ...