Synopsis
ESPN continues its exploration of the "E" in its name (it stands for "Entertainment") with a new TV movie, "CodeBreakers" (9 p.m. Saturday), a decent but not outstanding film about an early 1950s football team cheating scandal at West Point.

Unlike some of ESPN's earlier efforts, criticized in some quarters for their use of profanity, "CodeBreakers" does not go to egregious extremes as it depicts a scheme concocted by football players to keep their grades up and stay in the good graces of Coach Earl "Red" Blaik (Scott Glenn).

Running back George Holbrook (Jeff Roop, a Carnegie Mellon University grad) falls behind in his studies and gets pulled into a cheating scheme with other football players. A student who's good in English will take an English test and immediately write down all the questions and answers and pass those along to other football players who have yet to take the test.

When Holbrook tells roommate and best friend Brian Nolan (Zachery Bryan, "Home Improvement") that he can get him help with his studies, Nolan feels the West Point honor code has been violated and tells the West Point commandant what he's learned.

Bryan, who played a lot of bullying meatheads after his stint as one of the sons on "Home Improvement," breaks that pattern with his role in "CodeBreakers" and proves he is capable of playing a sympathetic character.

Where "CodeBreakers" fails is in its attempt to cover too much ground. The film tries to show the pressure players are under, and it also hints at an internal political struggle between Blaik and Commandant Harkins (Jude Ciccolella, "24"), but the script by G. Ross Parker doesn't make clear why there's animosity between the two men save for one scene in which Blaik won't let Harkins and a visiting dignitary observe football practice.
excerpted from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 8, 2005