Delayed Reaction: Lean on Me

The Pitch: A disciplinarian fixes an inner-city school.*
*I wish there was more to the pitch than that. Would adding "based on a true story" help?

How I Came Into It: I know the song. I assumed it would be used in the movie...I caught that Morgan Freeman was in it before turning it on. I didn't even know it was about a school though.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) This is an archetypical story in every way (conflicting viewpoints crash into one another, grow together, and create something even better) and it works because, dammit, it's a good formula. I miss the days when Morgan Freeman still felt like he had something to prove. He was fired up for this which I haven't seen in a while.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: You know that feeling you get when you feel like you're being lied to? When all the parts of a story come together just a little too well? The story goes just a beat or two beyond credibility? I felt that watching this. That's the nature of "based on a true story" but, I don't know, it pushed things a little further than something like Remember the Titans did and lost me in the process. It also doesn't help that I mentally could not side with him chaining the doors closed. That's just ridiculously unsafe, not some rule that's arbitrarily being asked to be enforced.

Netflix Rating: 3 Stars
The Pitch: A disciplinarian fixes an inner-city school.*
*I wish there was more to the pitch than that. Would adding "based on a true story" help?

How I Came Into It: I know the song. I assumed it would be used in the movie...I caught that Morgan Freeman was in it before turning it on. I didn't even know it was about a school though.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) This is an archetypical story in every way (conflicting viewpoints crash into one another, grow together, and create something even better) and it works because, dammit, it's a good formula. I miss the days when Morgan Freeman still felt like he had something to prove. He was fired up for this which I haven't seen in a while.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: You know that feeling you get when you feel like you're being lied to? When all the parts of a story come together just a little too well? The story goes just a beat or two beyond credibility? I felt that watching this. That's the nature of "based on a true story" but, I don't know, it pushed things a little further than something like Remember the Titans did and lost me in the process. It also doesn't help that I mentally could not side with him chaining the doors closed. That's just ridiculously unsafe, not some rule that's arbitrarily being asked to be enforced.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend