Movie Review: "Checkmate"

Synopsis: High school student Aaron Carlson aspires to be a lawyer...but, his parents and his high school principal think it's just a pipe dream.  While pursuing his goal, Aaron finds his way into a local chess club...and finds out that becoming the regional champion could lead him to being accepted into his college of choice.  He studies the game extensively...only to lose badly.  Will he be able to emerge victorious and fulfill his goal?

The Good: As someone who grew up playing board games, both old and new, it's nice to see a movie that focuses on one, especially a timeless one such as chess.  Also, a story a character shares serves as a good analogy for what an obsession or addiction to something--regardless of what it is--can do to you...something that definitely hits home in a world where people everywhere are glued to their phones or social media.

The Bad: Unfortunately, the rest of this film falls flat; it's just utterly boring.  Add to that dislikable characters, a sparse and poorly done soundtrack, and a scene where the protagonist answers the door in his underwear--no joke!--and this was definitely a dud.

Conclusion: Back in the day, my neighborhood friends used to call me "the king of board games," because I had so many; most of them came from garage sales throughout my area.  I eventually had to get rid of all of mine, because I had nobody to play them with anymore; still, I do have fun when I play them from time to time, because you never know what will happen! Despite my history with checkers, Monopoly, and such, I don't really want to watch a movie about a board game...especially a thinking game like chess.  It may be fun to play, but, simply watching it is dull, especially how this movie presented it.  After my bad experiences this month with this and other films in the genre, I'm beginning to see why Christian cinema has such a bad reputation.

Score: 1/5