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Title: DOESN'T QUITE DELIVER THE GOODS
Review: Despite a very strong cast, laudable aspirations and almost universal critical acclaim, "Stand and Deliver" is ultimately a noble near-miss. Though based on the real-life classroom success of teacher Jaime Escalante and the Latin-American students whom he led to new heights of academic achievement, the film is badly undercut by a surprising lack of conviction. The classroom scenes are tame and the interaction between Escalante and his supposedly hapless students lifeless. The alleged troubles of his students are painted in such broad strokes that they quickly disappear into the background, making the kids'eventual triumph seem trite and cinematically inevitable rather than inspiring. A tighter script and more imaginative direction would have made this a much better film. As it is, this is more of a light documentary than a movie, and pales next to similar films like "Lean on Me" and "The Blackboard Jungle."
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