The story begins in the present day (early 2000s), where a retired teacher, Mr. William Hundert, reflects on his teaching at the elite boarding school for boys called Saint Benedict’s.

The scene switches back to the early 1970s. The boys are playing and hanging out until it’s time for class.

Mr. Hundert is teacing ancient classics. He has a student, Martin Blythe, read a plaque on the door behind him in the classroom. It consists of a statement by an ancient Mesopotamian ruler. Mr. Hundert adds that its message has sadly been forgotten.

Later, a careless student named Sedgewick Bell, starts attending Saint Benedict’s, including Mr. Hundert’s class. Unlike the other kids, Sedgewick is spoiled, disrupts class, can be disrespectful, and does poorly on his assignments. He even takes a few boys (Martin, Deepack, and Louis) to the lake and boats to Saint Mary’s, a girl’s boarding school, which breaks a bunch of school rules. Not surprisingly, they all get in trouble.

However, with proper assistance from Mr. Hundert, Sedgewick slowly begins to improve. In the ancient classics course, the students need to take a quiz, which they only have 3 hours to complete. Sedgewick, ironically, receives an A+ on his quiz. He, Deepak, and Louis become finalists for the emperor trivia competition due to their high scores.

During the contest, when Sedgewick is asked questions, he hesitates to answer them. He answers them all correctly – except for the last one. Therefore, the winner is Deepak.

Later, Sedgewick confesses to Mr. Hundert that he cheated. But Mr. Hundert doesn’t penalize him.

Twenty-five years later, Saint Benedict’s, which has now become co-ed, offers the alumni a chance to compete in the same type of competition as before. Although Mr. Hundert has retired, he is willing to lead the contest for the same guys who participated a quarter of a century before. He even flies to Long Island for it. He meets a good amount of the alumni from the 1970s, including Sedgewick, who has a wife and two sons.

The competition is held again with Louis, Deepak, and Sedgewick. Once again, Deepak wins.

Stakes increase between Sedgewick and Mr. Hundert.

This movie kept my attention for the most part. It portrays boarding school life credibly (although for some reason, Sedgewick didn’t have to wear his hair above the ears like the rest of the boys – something common for private schools). The boys acted as carefree and naive as real teenagers. I was able to relate to them as they reminded me of how boys acted when I was in high school.

The staff were also authentic – especially when Sedgewick asked them irrelevant questions.

The characters were believable for the most part. When the students were adults, though, they’ve hardly matured since attending Saint Benedict’s Academy. I would expect better behavior from adult men, especially around their families.

Even though the alumni trivia contest is essential to the story, it’s not exactly the most credible element. Most people move on from their high school classmates just a few years after graduating. Of course, there are exceptions. But that’s another topic.

Sometimes I found Sedgewick annoying, even as an adult. The plot was a little bit hard to follow at times due to the constant POV-switching. It also made it less clear who the main character was, although I think it was Mr. Hundert.

But overall, I enjoyed The Emperor’s Club. It was good with relatable characters and just the right amount of tension.

As a PG-13 rated movie, it does have some mildly mature content (i.e. a little bit of foul language). I would recommend this film for people ages 12 and over.

A more important factor to consider is that this movie is, unfortunately, not available on any official streaming service (Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.). I, however, was lucky enough to watch it for free on this third-party site, lookmovie2(dot)to. So, unless you have access to technology that can still play DVDs, The Emperor’s Club is only available to watch at the site mentioned above. Just search for the name of the film and “watch for free.” I was going to include a link, except that I don’t know if the site is compatible with phones or tablets (I watched the movie on my computer).

I hope that’s not inconvenient for you.

Anyway, I give The Emperor’s Club 4 out of 5 stars.