If you don't know what movie to watch this weekend, I highly, highly recommend Coach Carter. It ranked #1 in the US for a couple of weeks, but I don't think it will do as good here because it's not getting as much media hype as, say, Miss Congeniality 2 or The Pacifier. Which is a shame, because it's really a good movie.
It's the true story of a high school basketball coach, Ken Carter, and how he tries to whip his good but misguided and ill-disciplined players into shape.
The nice thing about this movie is that unlike other sports movies, it doesn't focus solely on turning the boys into good athletes; rather, Carter's aim is to turn the boys into good student-athletes—meaning he also tries to make sure they do good in school. This doesn't sit well with the boys' parents and the rest of the community, since they believe that playing good basketball is the only guarantee that the kids will get a good life after high school. What Coach Carter does to prove his point is the highlight of the film.
The film is fast-paced, well-written, and well-edited—there is no one dull moment, even during those scenes where it's all talk and there's not much action going on. Samuel Jackson may be the big star here (unless you also count singer Ashanti, who plays one of the players' girlfriends), but the other supporting actors are good too, and their characters well-developed.
The ending is not quite what one would expect, but I actually liked it because it really drives home Coach Carter's point about the difference between achieving victory on the court and achieving "victory within."
Watch it, watch it, watch it. I promise, it's time and money well-spent.
1 comment:
hi jac. hope you still remember me. stumbled upon your blog through jm. hehehe. i loved coach carter. sobrang galing! samuel jackson really fits the role. very effective. and you were right, it's a different basketball movie. i should know coz i'm a basketball freak. hahaha.
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