Life of a King (2013)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

For a movie that speaks of focusing on the king, this movie didn't follow its own advice. It was all over trying to follow different subplots. But its heart was in the right place, and it landed on some wonderful lessons.

Cuba Gooding Jr an Oscar winning actor who now tends to do rather a lot of straight to DVD films which he stars in and some cameos or supporting roles in major films destined for the cinema.This film is obviously a low budget film destined for DVD and pay TV. Gooding now looks like a guy in middle age and in this film he is an ex con with grown up kids, becomes a janitor and teaches chess to a class of kids in detention. Chess equals life lessons and his students are from the wrong side of life.Its a feel good film with a slight hard edge, but you have the usual plot points that these type of films always tend to have. A class of alpha male hoodlums, a bright but reluctant chess player, a tragedy which leads to one character at a crossroads, superior officials placing obstacles as when one of them wins his victory is rescinded leading to a showdown later on.Gooding is more reserved, a man who has added years to his youthful zest and there is no mugging for the camera here and he is the anchor in this low budget but affirming film.

Apparently "Life of a King" is the true story of the ex-detainee Eugene Brown who founded a chess club in the slums of Washington, to keep teenagers of the streets and to teach the philosophical significance of a game of chess. I say "apparently" because I read on the internet that the real Eugene Brown only gave chess lessons at an elementary school, and certainly not at a high school. Also he would be too afraid to hang around with teenagers driving fast cars, waving with guns and trade drugs. So this movie is 95% fiction. The idea to establish a chess club for underprivileged children came from one Sergeant Michael Brown (no relation incidentally) who served in the fire department in Washington D.C.Whether it is a slightly modified version of the real facts, actually isn't relevant. I thought it was a fascinating and poignant film about underprivileged kids who escape reality every day and don't think a descent education is important. They flee into the criminal world and turn against the social values. "Life of a King" belongs in a list of films that have appeared over the years. The content is twofold. On the one hand we have the rebellious youth rejecting any form of authority except that of a local criminal. On the other hand, we have some good Samaritan who believes that these young people do have a future and tries to help them. The subject is nothing new and there are a whole series of movies with a similar theme. From "Boys Town" and "Blackboard Jungle" to "Class of 1984" and "Dangerous Minds" . In all these movies a figure emerges who has the will and patience to put the derailed youth back on track. The biggest cliché in all these films is the fact there needs to happen a tragic accident before everyone comes to their senses.Cuba Gooding Jr. plays a wonderful part. I'm not a big fan of Cuba, but I thought this was a magnificent performance. He always has such a somber and sad look on his face that perfectly fits this role. A broken man after a long imprisonment who realizes that his only purpose, just like a pawn in a chess game, is to protect an important person and at the end gets sacrificed. That's the message he tries to convey to the young kids. Clifton (Carlton Byrd) is the leading figure of the young ones who's dealing for a local drugs lord. He's the only one who doesn't believe in the chessgame of Eugene but immediately realizes that the latter is not quickly intimidated. Tahime (Malcolm Mays) is the timid boy with family problems and follows Clifton blindly until the end. Peanut (Kevin Hendricks) is the soft hearted of the classroom and gets handed the role of victim.The message Eugene wants to tell, is that life is like a chess game. Once you understand and apply that to daily life, there are opportunities to escape the downward spiral. At times I found it very moving. But you have to admit that this is just an average movie with the usual clichés and predictable situations. This movie will finally end up on some TV channel that broadcasts more of this moralizing, with life stories filled, movies.A beautiful rendition in a well known framework.More reviews at http://opinion-as-a-moviefreak.blogspot.be/

There are not many "feel good" movies out there today, but this one really counts among those that fill this category. Cuba Gooding has long been one of my favourite actors. He possesses a wide range of acting abilities as evidenced by "Snow Dogs" on one hand with his somewhat bland comedic style to "Gifted Hands" wherein he brings to the screen a dramatic style that is uniquely his own. It is this latter gift that he portrays in this feature as he moves from an ex-con to a giver that gives back to the community and its young confused residents, a new hope that most had never known. He portrays the real life story of Eugene Brown, a man who'd known nothing but crime for most of his life, but once he was through serving many years for armed robbery, he dedicated his life to helping other young men to see that there was more to life than crime. It's a good story made better by the fact that it was based on real life.