The Emperor's Club
The Emperor's Club
PG-13 | 22 November 2002 (USA)
The Emperor's Club Trailers

William Hundert is a passionate and principled Classics professor who finds his tightly-controlled world shaken and inexorably altered when a new student, Sedgewick Bell, walks into his classroom. What begins as a fierce battle of wills gives way to a close student-teacher relationship, but results in a life lesson for Hundert that will still haunt him a quarter of a century later.

Reviews
ada the leading man is my tpye
Ploydsge just watch it!
Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
gamzeozcaaan This film is very old but İt is still impressive.I think so, I watched four times. William Hundert -Kevin Klein- is a teacher at prep school. This teacher have a different method for his student.Sedgewick Bell - Senator's son- come at school. There is a competition in the school tradition called Mr. Julius Caesar. Sedgewick, Martin, Louis and Deepack is the finalists. He - Sedgewick- does the trick and he lose competition. Twenty five years later,Sedgewick organizes a rematch while offering a large donation. Sedgewick does the trick again. Mr. Hundert does to notice.He was disappointed. In the beginning, Mr.Hundert thought 'Sedgewick changed' but he understood he didn't change because human's character never change.I hope so, We will have like this teacher.I hope so, some changes will of our lives.
Evan Wessman (CinematicInceptions) I know this point has been addressed in practically every review for this movie, but I have to talk at least a little bit about Dead Poets Society. This is NOT like DPS in quality, principle, or plot basis. I only say this because I, like I'm sure many people did, expected Emperor's Club to be like a 21st century's Dead Poets. It's not an entirely bad film, but it definitely could have been better. The quality of the plot and characters would have been fine if they were included in a genre other than drama, but since the plot and characters are pretty much the only elements that the story has it's kind of unsatisfactory.The characters as a whole were slightly below average. William Hundert is clearly a solid teacher and does his best to engage all of his students in their education of the Greeks and Romans, but is rather weak and soft outside of the classroom, which aren't great qualities for somebody in his position. The truth is, he fails nearly every student as a result of failing Sedgewick. Sedgewick Bell's main purpose is to elevate himself socially by defying Mr. Hundert. This part of his character is fine, but his exposition as someone who feels the rules don't apply to him feels forced. James Ellerby and Elizabeth had too little screen time for the importance they were treated with and probably could and should have been left out entirely, or at least included differently. If the movie had been a true story, their two characters would have been fine, but since it's fiction, there's really no excuse for their incorporation into the story. Senator Bell's role was good, especially in how his actions on screen generated necessary exposition for how he was treated off screen. The three other main students of Louis Masoudi, Deepak Mehta, and Martin Blythe definitely deserved more attention and I think the movie could have been much better if we got to know the three of them better.The plot could have been much better. The first hour or so is fine with Mr. Hundert teaching his students and going into unofficial battle against Sedgewick's vices. The Mr. Julius Caesar contest was well done too, especially the display of Sedgewick's cheating because it was presented in such a way that the audience keeps perfect pace with the characters. However, the back half with the Julius Caesar rematch was kind of weak. The 25 year hiatus between the two contests was very poorly executed, particularly Mr. Hundert wanting to become principal. It had no pertinence to the rest of the story except to lead in the older Sedgewick funding the school and the Julius Caesar rematch. The scenario was plausible, but they could have easily found another one that wasted much less time on screen (for instance, the school just needs funds for Hundert to keep his job). The second Caesar contest goes fine until we find out that Sedgewick cheats again. The sequence was executed well again, but come on, there was no reason for Sedgewick to cheat again. Winning the contest wouldn't have helped his career or his ego or anything else. Why he wanted the rematch to begin with is perfectly understandable, but unless he's just *that* competitive, there was really no point for him to cheat again. The falling action after the second contest was alright, and you get a good sense of how most of the characters' lives will continue. You might find the ending satisfying, but I couldn't root for Mr. Hundert enough to really feel like he'd earned the recognition of his students.The acting was decent, but don't expect any award-winning performances. The rest of the execution is standard in the score, editing, directing, and stuff like that. The script actually wasn't too bad despite the lower caliber characters.For prospective viewers, I would recommend that you not spend money on it, but not count it out from your "to see" list. It's not bad as a family movie, but you may want to screen it first and see if you want to filter anything. It really could be PG and the scenes that make it PG-13 feel a little forced and don't really advance the characters or story (think Planes, Trains, and Automobiles). I don't know what genre fans I would recommend this to, but probably don't watch it based on any of the actors and be warned that it doesn't have attractive amounts of comedy, romance, action, horror, or qualities of any other genre. Basically, it's all story. If you don't like it after the first Julius Caesar contest, it's probably best to stop. If you want to see it through, just be warned that you might be disappointed. Overall Rating: 7/10.
blmayers Surfing through the more obscure TV channels I came across The Emperor's Club. To my surprise I found this film enervating and compelling from beginning to end. Sure, there were some ordinary moments, but I felt the emotions of the cast coming straight at me throughout. Kevin Kline was terrific as were all the others, who, by their variety and quantity were a starring but supporting cast. The dialogue at every turn added to the depth of character of the film in its entirety and the interspersing of the quotations added the icing to the cake. The story and its telling was riveting entertainment as well as being completely thought provoking. BLM
jmorris-8 This movie is not one of the better titles that Kevin Kline has been a part of during his illustrious career. Kevin Kline has consistently shown his audience his deftness and his uncanny ability to get inside of a character and make it his own. The Emperor's Club is an okay movie that Kevin Kline keeps from going down the drain. One of the key factors in rating a movie or a performance to me is, what happens when the main character is off camera? Does the movie still move along? Am I eager to see the character again? Watch this movie with that in mind. Watch a fish called Wanda the same way. Or watch Wild Wild West. Kevin Kline simply shines through in every possible way.