Inspirational true stories are catnip for movie producers: When done well, these sorts of movies can be incredibly uplifting, an emotion that audiences can't get enough of. But when done badly.... Sadly, the latter is the case with Life of a King, a well-meaning movie about an ex-con named Eugene Brown (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.) who got out of prison and helped at-risk youth by teaching them chess, a sport that helped him while in the slammer. Noble intentions for a movie, to be sure, but the execution isn't so good. My review is up at Screen International.
