We Are Marshall Reviews

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick. Indeed, McG would be the last guy I would expect to direct a sport drama based on a true events. Still , according to IMDB, it is his best movie so far so I thought I should give it a try. This movie was also starring Matthew McConaughey who made recently an impressive come-back. Back in those days, pretty much like McG, McConaughey had a pretty lousy reputation and this movie was one of the very few which wasn’t a lame romantic-comedies during which McConaughey would loose his shirt half-way through. Anyway, how was this flick after all? First of all, this story really had some potential as it dealt with a huge trauma for this (American) football team, this school, even the whole town. Unfortunately, the makers barely went into the psychological turmoil involved and, at the end of the day, it remains a rather pedestrian and predictable sport feature. I mean, as usual, you have a multitude of characters with their own story-line and it gives an excuse for the makers to avoid spending too much time with one character and instead they kept jumping from one to another and eventually, all those plots were pretty much half-baked. The other thing that bothered me was that, even though it is a sport feature, it was not about competition, winning, trophies and that kind of stuff. It was more about a community and how they tried to deal with grief and yet, they felt compelled to add a big game at the end during which Marshall won as the underdog. Of course, it was uplifting and I must admit that McG directed some really nice football scenes but it wasn’t what the story was supposed to be about. Still, it remains a decent sport flick with indeed some pretty uplifting bits and there was a nice cast as well. To conclude, even though the whole thing had some potential, at the end of the day, it is a rather standard sport drama but I guess it is still worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

''One day, not today, not tomorrow, not this season, probably not next season either but one day, you and I are gonna wake up and suddenly we're gonna be like every other team in every other sport where winning is everything and nothing else matters. And when that day comes, well thats, thats when we'll honor them.''

When a plane crash claims the lives of members of the Marshall University football team and some of its fans, the team's new coach (McConaughey) and his surviving players try to keep the football program alive.

Matthew McConaughey: Jack Lengyel

We Are Marshall is about inspiration. It starts with a tragedy, in a true story the plane crash which killed nearly the entire Marshall University football team. Then, it deals with the reactions of everybody the tragedy touched.

Director McG amusingly enough, made Charlie's Angels 1 and 2 which,without being very good at all, resulted in a fun comedy satire and good parodies of action.
I appreciate that McG made something different though with We Are Marshall, proving that he can do something else besides frantic action laced with comedy.
But overall, honestly,We Are Marshall did not convince me of much in the way of change or improvement.
The development is very predictable and the story is told by the most obvious ways.The ending pretends to be emotive but it really does not surprise.

It's obviously a very captivating story. So why does the movie not quite hit the heights you sense it should? The biggest problem is the movie's pace. Fifteen to twenty minutes easily could have been cut here to help the movie move along. As it is the movie struggles to build the momentum so important in leading to that big payoff at the end. Some characters seem superfluous, most notably that of the girlfriend of one of the dead players, as portrayed by Kate Mara. There's nothing wrong with Mara's performance, it's just that her character seems totally unnecessary and really adds nothing to the film. Any time spent with her character is time which could have been better spent elsewhere or better yet cut out of the film altogether. In the central role of the new coach Matthew McConaughey gives what is at times a frustrating performance. All the offbeat quirks and mannerisms wear thin after a while. Perhaps he was trying too hard to imitate the real Coach Lengyel, but whatever McConaughey was trying to do he never quite manages to convince. And since his character is at the very heart of the story that is a rather glaring problem with the movie. But despite the problems the movie may have it's still well worth seeing. You'll be both inspired and entertained. You just may get the sense you should have been a little bit more inspired and entertained than you actually were.

If you stick around through the closing moments, though, you will be treated to a truly inspiring epilogue. By keeping the football team going, Lengyel paved the way for a program that would have great success in the future. Kate Mara, recounts this success in a voice over and it's the most inspiring moment of the film. You want to admire Marshall because it's ultimately about the importance of perseverance, but the film is too bathetic to win the hearts of us, hard to please, viewers.

I stayed up late last night and watched this movie on HBO. I got to admit this has got to be one of the better movies Ive seen awhile. Definately one of the better movies based on actual events. Loved Matt M and Mathew Fox in the movie. If you havent already you REALLY need to see this movie. You will not be disappointed