Cheats (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Romantic Comedy	Dolby Digital Trailer-Rain Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	86:54
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Andrew Gurland
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Trevor Fehrman Elden Henson Matthew Lawrence Martin Starr Griffin Dunne Mary Tyler Moore
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	Rental	Music	Mark Mothersbaugh

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    I'm not quite sure what Cheats is. Is it a teen comedy (in which case I shouldn't take anything seriously)? Is it a subtle social commentary (in which case is it saying that cheating is bad because it hurts the honest people)? Or is it saying cheating is good, because it allows a rebel to demonstrate protest over unfair exams and all-too-fallible teachers? Ambiguities, ambiguities ...

    Handsome Davis (Trevor Fehrman) has cheated his way throughout school, and he isn't about to stop in his last year of high school. Together with childhood friend Sammy Green (Elden Henson) and two other buddies Victor Barone (Matthew Lawrence) and Jonathan Jacob Applebee a.k.a. "the Crib Master" (Martin Starr), the four friends have found ways to cheat on just about every test.

    However, the school principal Mrs. Stark (Mary Tyler Moore) is determined to catch the four students. Fellow student Julie Merkel (Maggie Lawson) resents their cheating because it's endangering her own chances of securing placement at a prestigious university (I'm not sure why, since she seems like a bright student, but I guess director/writer Andrew Gurland wanted to make the point that cheaters hurt honest students).

    Just when Mrs. Stark has just convinced the students not to cheat by threatening to put a black mark on their record, one last irresistible challenge was placed in front of them - an "unpassable" test set by Mr. Alex Harkin (Morris Panych). Unable to resist, they set out to plan the one last cheat that will forever immortalize them in school history. Things don't quite go according to plan, and each of them will be faced with the decision of their lives, and the friendship between the boys will face the greatest test of all. How will they survive?

    I liked the concept of the film, but found the execution somewhat puzzling and unsatisfactory. As I've mentioned, the film skates a thin line between comedy and social commentary, and I can't quite figure out what the "message" of the film is, if it has one. It alternately tries to illustrate the dangers and downside of cheating, but at the same time glorifies our cheating friends as "heroes" against an unfair "system." Apparently the film is based on Andrew Gurland's own experiences in school, and I suspect he was probably one of the "cheaters" portrayed in the film. In this case, I suspect the film's ambiguity may be a result of Andrew's own mixed feelings about his past.

Video

    We are presented with a widescreen 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced transfer. Presumably this is the intended aspect ratio, but as the film was never released theatrically, it's hard to be sure. Like most New Line films released by Roadshow Entertainment, this is a pretty stunning and nearly flawless transfer.

    Detail levels are high and colours are perfectly saturated.

    The only artefact I noticed was occasional shimmering and minor aliasing. Other than that, this is pretty much a reference quality transfer.

    There is an English for the Hearing Impaired subtitle track. This includes descriptions of background music and Foley effects, plus transcriptions of song lyrics.

    This is a single sided single layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only one audio track on the disc: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s).

    Although I did not expect this film to be anything other than dialogue and front centred focused, I have to award the sound editor extra marks for trying.

    I noticed that background music was consistently mixed into the surround channels. I also noticed that some care has been taken to apply reverb to dialogue depending on the scene locale, and the reverb extends into the surround channels. Also, the subwoofer was lightly used to support the low frequencies in the audio track, but let's face it, there simply isn't enough opportunities in the plot to really make use of the surround channels or subwoofer.

    Dialogue quality was good and I did not notice any issues with audio synchronization.

    The background music is mainly nondescript "high school teen pop". The original music is by Mark Mothersbaugh.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The only extra is a trailer.

Menu

    The menus are 16x9 enhanced and static.

Dolby Digital Trailer-Rain (0:34)

    This is presented in 1.78:1 (16x9 enhanced) and Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s).

Theatrical Trailer (1:18)

    This is presented in approximately 1.80:1 letterboxed (not 16x9 enhanced) and Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s). Since this film was never released in the cinemas, this trailer is actually promoting the (R1) DVD and VHS release.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• English dts 5.1 audio track
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track
• Featurette: "The Real Cheats" containing interviews with the real life characters who inspired the film
• 3 Other Trailer(s) featuring Drop Dead Gorgeous, Sugar and Spice, Little Nicky
• 3 Deleted Scenes
• DVD-ROM content (InterActual player plus web link)

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• nothing

    Region 1 is easily the winner, although an audio commentary track would have been nice.

    Cheats is a film about four friends who cheated throughout school. In the final year of high school, they discover they need to make some difficult decisions.

    The video transfer is excellent, and so is the audio transfer.

    Extras are minimal, and only a trailer is included. Sadly we miss out on the dts track and some additional extras on the R1 release.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall