Coach Carter Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)January 12th, 2005
COACH CARTER
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2005 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
COACH CARTER is a genre picture that rises above its clichéd roots as another sports action film that ends in the canonical big game. Based on a true story, this is a basketball movie that's as interested in what happens off the court as on and is more concerned with the boys' conditioning -- both academic and athletic -- than in their performance in the games. But if you're looking for a good sports film, it's that too, as it's an entertaining mix of STAND AND DELIVER and REMEMBER THE TITANS with a charismatic performance by Samuel L. Jackson as Coach Ken Carter.
As the movie opens, we watch the hopeless Richmond High School team floundering after finishing an abysmal 4-22 season. Ken Carter, a successful small business owner who was once a record setting basketball star at Richmond High, accepts the grief of a part-time coaching job for the munificent sum of $1,500 for the entire season. He immediately lays down the law to his new team of cut-ups and clowns, he wants them to sign a contract in order to play for him with rules that include: maintaining a 2.3 grade point average, showing up at all classes and sitting in the front row and wearing a coat and tie on game day. If anyone is late or talks back to him, everyone is punished by extra exercises. It's a tough regime that places kids and parents in open rebellion against him. Even the principal (Denise Dowse) thinks he's being too tough since these kids, she reasons, won't go to college or even graduate from high school, so basketball is all they have. The movie cites lots of frightening, and undoubtedly true, statistics about black schools in bad areas like Richmond.
As you'll no doubt guess, the kids will eventually rise to the occasion after many false starts. The biggest surprise comes when the coach finds his rules are being systematically violated by most of the team. In the hopes that you haven't heard the story on the news, I won't tell you what happens. What I will share is that COACH CARTER is a good, heart-warming drama that speaks equally to those who love sports and those who couldn't care less. Only in the excessive use of reaction shots of the people in the stands does the movie ever disappoint. (It is way better than its cheesy trailer.) If you're looking for an uplifting and enjoyable film to take your teens to -- mine was too busy studying -- that is full of good messages, honestly delivered, COACH CARTER is a perfect pick.
COACH CARTER runs what turns out to be a surprisingly fast 2:10. It is rated PG-13 for "violence, sexual content, language, teen partying and some drug material" and would be acceptable for kids around 12 and up.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, January 14, 2005. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
