Stand and Deliver/Lean on Me (2006)

"[Lean] ...the definitive inner city school picture...Freeman turns in a spectacular performance...  At-A-Glance Film Reviews
"[Stand] ...Olmos turns in his most famous performance in this feel-good classic.  Christopher Null, FilmCritic.com
"[Lean] Freeman goes for the gusto and pulls it off...  David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
"[Stand] The real key to this film's excellence is the character development and the story, which is first class.  George Chabot, Epinions.com

Editor's Note STAND AND DELIVER: In this true story, a class not expected to exceed beyond basic arithmetic make academic history, thanks to an inspirational teacher, by achieving record high scores in the state's Advanced Placement Calculus Exam. LEAN ON ME: Based on actual events, director John G. Avildsen's LEAN ON ME tells the story of Joe Clark (Morgan Freeman), a tough and radical disciplinarian hired to save the worst school in Paterson, New Jersey. The once exemplary Eastside High School is now failing miserably. Graffiti lines the halls, gangs and drugs rule, and teachers and students live in perpetual fear. In one school year, Clark is challenged to turn the snake pit of a school into a halfway civilized place of learning, populated by decent students. To make sure his students pass a basic proficiency exam, Clark resorts to what some believe to be questionable methods--including wandering the halls threateningly with a baseball bat--to restore order to his school. Clark's extreme tactics also include firing teachers for talking back, forcing students to sing the school song on demand, and locking out students known to be drug dealers. Freeman delivers an astonishing performance as the tough-as-nails principal who became a national hero and symbol for tough-love education.

	Alan North
	Beverly Todd
	Edward James Olmos
	Estelle Harris
	Lou Diamond Phillips
	Mark Phelan
	Morgan Freeman
	Robert Guillaume
	John G. Avildsen - [Lean] Director
	Ramon Menendez - [Stand] Director

Washington Post 8 of 10
[Lean] "Lean on Me," the new film about a real-life principal who brings a Paterson, N.J., high school back to life, is some sort of definitive exercise in cinematic uplift. It's such a bandwagon-load of good vibes that you almost feel guilty for not climbing aboard -- the kind of movie that makes you feel like a degenerate for not wanting to be jerked around...Besides, Avildsen has made this movie before. "Lean on Me" is nothing more than "Rocky" with report cards...The picture's climactic scene even takes place at the top of a big flight of steps. But at the moment of triumph, this "Rocky" doesn't raise his hands above his head -- the filmmakers have done it for him. - Hal Hinson

Washington Post 9 of 10
[Stand] "Stand and Deliver" is a rousing, real-life underdog drama -- "Hoosiers" with logarithms. This time the Cinderella story is set at a high school in East Los Angeles; the hero is a driven, Bolivian-born teacher; and the players are remedial mathematicians who triumph over calculus...Olmos is absorbing as Escalante, whose determination is larger than life even though the man isn't. He's almost too human, a pudge whose chest shows through where the buttons gape -- a former computer nerd with the nerve of Zorro. As the chief troublemaker, Phillips lends the stardust. Slouched at his desk, his legs stretched out, he oozes the bravado that adolescents mistake for confidence. But under the machismo, Escalante finds the perennial schoolboy. - Rita Kempley