Let's be realistic.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

What an incredible movie!!! I happened to catch it on HBO about a month back and i am still reeling under its influence!!I so much liked the movie..that i got it TV'od and watch it almost alternate days whenever i have time!! I never knew that Matthew Perry was SO capable of acting with finesse. He's brings the character of RON CLARK alive so much...that actually u start wishing for a teacher like him to teach you, well at least i did. The kids especially the kid who played TayShawn have performed brilliantly, but of course Matt Perry takes the cake. I'll be terribly disappointed if Matthew Doest get an Oscar nomination/ award for this, its his time to shine!! My only wish is to meet Sir perry and Sir Ron CLark himself before i die....God bless Matthew and Ron, hope they have great success in their RON CLARK ACADEMY, and if i ever come to USA, I'll make sure I see their academy in Atlanta. Well what r u guys waiting for, grab a DVD and watch it, there's LOTS to learn from it!!!

I have seen it 6 times times and each time i see something that i miss the last time. It is so real and it keeps your attention and wow it was good. Matthew Perry was excellent in it and the children in it just made so real. I like the rules that he had made for the class and the way he stuck to them too. My daughter liked it when he had to drink the chocolate milk but they did learn. I also like it when he did the teaching of the Presidents that he did it to rap. It just is written so well and i know some of my friends that seen can relate to it as they grew up in that area. I hope that it eventually will come out on DVD as i would own it then.

Nothing against Matthew Perry, I believe he acted just fine in the movie. However, when movies are "based" on true stories, they are usually stretched as this has to be the most embellished of them all! It wasn't the acting that bothered me, the youngsters actually did very well in that respect.When Ron Clark(Matthew Perry) first comes into the classroom and states there are 3 rules which he demands to be followed, thats fine. its when the movie continues & through out, Mr. Clark had as many as 25-30 rules all over the room. Thats the first No No! When your teacher, you establish your rules 1st and foremost to the students get accustomed to following them. "Procedure, procedure, procedure" once you start adding things or CHANGING things, the children(whether they are from the ghetto, or not) will become insanely confused and unfamiliar with the environment of the classroom.When the class is on their way to lunch and the main character student cuts in line, Mr. Clark proceeds to ask her if she cut in line and then replies with "Until you tell the truth, the whole class will suffer" Lol, this may have been allowed or perhaps encourages in the older days of teaching, but I can tell you if a teacher did that now and a Principal saw it, you would get a warning or be out the door. It promotes negativity amongst the students and its not helping an already negative situation. There are other ways to go about dealing with 1 student while NOT affecting the rest of the class.When Mr. Clark informs the students they are going to "Phantom of the Opera" all of the students get excited, especially Te-Shaun(however you spell it). That was where I laughed, I have been into rough area schools etc etc, these kids wouldn't know or give a rats ass about "Phantom of the Opera" this part was almost to the point where I turned the film off completely.My last issue with the movie is this. Who is the token drunk white guy who beats up TeShaun lol, where did that come from in the movie? Don't get me wrong here, nothing wrong with the acting in the movie, but very unrealistic and if you think you can get kids in these types of areas to appreciate "Phantom of the Opera" and things like that, keep on dreaming. I'm not saying you cannot touch 1 or even 2 students and help them succeed, but this was ridiculous

Being a teacher, I look for inspiration. I was fortunate to have seen Ron Clark speak last year. At this gathering, mention was made that there was a TV movie being made about his inspiring story starring Matthew Perry.So, now comes that movie. But having seen it the other night, I must say how unimpressed I was. The reason why is that Ron Clark has been turned into "Ron Clark, role for TV star who wants people to see that he can act" and it doesn't seem to capture the personality of the real guy! The real Ron Clark I would describe as effervescent, clearly North Carolinian (the dialect gives that away), a bundle of energy. Matthew Perry's performance seemed, in comparison, to be Ron Clark on downers. A dynamic, even flamboyant, white guy in a Harlem school should seem to demand a stronger contrast in storytelling. THE RON CLARK STORY was too convenient in the fact that all story lines end at the same time in the same room. It's sanitized, homogenized and Hollywood-ized into formulaic material that does not serve to inspire from a realistic point of view. It exaggerated too far beyond what the real story is.Too bad. The inspiration for the storytelling got lost. It seems to have become less inspiring than the real Ron Clark would suggest. That's demotivating.