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Coach Carter (2005)
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Reviews Counted:141
Fresh:90
Rotten:51
Average Rating:6/10
Consensus: Like a good point guard, Samuel L. Jackson is the clear leader on the floor in a film that critics say transcends its formula trappings to be inspirational. However, some have said the film is too preachy and too long.
Runtime: 2 hrs 16 mins
Genre: Dramas
US Box Office: $67,169,549
Synopsis: In the tradition of LEAN ON ME and DANGEROUS MINDS comes COACH CARTER, an inspirational drama starring Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson portrays real-life figure Ken Carter, who graduated from... In the tradition of LEAN ON ME and DANGEROUS MINDS comes COACH CARTER, an inspirational drama starring Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson portrays real-life figure Ken Carter, who graduated from California's Richmond High only to return there years later, in 1999, and take over as head coach of the boys' basketball team. Unfortunately, the troubled school he remembered as a teenager is an even more insufferable place in his adulthood. Determined to make a change in his players' lives, Carter makes each young man sign a contract that ensures he will maintain a 2.3 GPA, attend every class, and wear a jacket and tie on game day. Of course, the players reject the contract at first, but when they realize that they don't have any other choice, they give in. And when it appears that their tough-as-nails coach is actually turning them into winners on the court, they embrace their coach's philosophy even further. But when Coach Carter receives the incomprehensibly awful progress reports of his players, he does the unthinkable: he benches the entire team. Directed by Thomas Carter (SAVE THE LAST DANCE), COACH CARTER is a sensitive drama that features an impassioned performance by Jackson, as well as the impressive young cast (most notably Rob Brown, Rick Gonzalez, and Robert Ri'Chard). [More]
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Ri'chard, Rob Brown, Debbi Morgan
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Ri'chard, Rob Brown, Debbi Morgan, Ashanti, Antwon Tanner, Ramsey Gbelawoe
Director: Thomas Carter
Director: Thomas Carter
Screenwriter: Mark Schwahn, John Gatins
Producer: Brian Robbins, Mike Tollin, David Gale
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Reviews for Coach Carter
By making the choices the filmmakers did here, we get a movie that may not be profound, but it's both highly entertaining for its sports and fascinating for its social issues.
Each of the side stories is played out in excruciating detail and seems to exist in entirely different movies, all of which will be tied up into bows by the end.
The movie's 'message' -- life is more than just sports -- is delivered with the delicacy of a piano dropped from a fifth-story window.
Thank goodness then for go-to guy Jackson. He takes what could have been a cardboard cliche role and puts flesh on it with his flamboyant intelligence.
Writers Mark Schwahn and John Gatins have a teen-movie pedigree, and they've kludged the film's true-life material into a conventional three-act shape instead of reimagining it as cinematic.
Samuel L. Jackson shouts, yells, bellows, and screams his way through the fact-inspired film
Over long and deeply manipulative, Coach Carter should nonetheless be praised for its far-from-fashionable celebration of personal advancement through academic achievement.
How do you put this message across without it seeming medicinal? Sure, MTV is among the movie's producers, but what 11th grader wants to spend a Friday night being hit with such a blunt instrument?
For those in need of an uplifting story in our dumbed-down times, Coach Carter is a slam dunk.
Utterly intolerable with its indulgence in inner-city stereotypes, overt preaching and simple antidotes.
Aside from maybe "Friday Night Lights," I can't think of another recent sports movie that dared to suggest athletic achievement isn't a worthy goal in and of itself.
This is supposed to be about setting high standards, yet it's full of fudged ultimatums; in the end I couldn't be sure whether its morality was complex or just confused.
It's not only a sports movie with the usual big games and important shots, but also a coach movie, with inspiring locker room speeches and difficult moral decisions.
The film nicely balances the stories, allowing some of the teammates to emerge as believably streetwise characters.
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