Review of Coach Carter

I never heard of this movie surprisingly, until I watched it in my Sports Literature Class. I have to say, I'm glad my teacher showed this to us, this is a really nice and uplifting story.

The performances were good but, Samuel L. Jackson stood out the most and was probably one of the best things about this movie. He commanded every scene and without him this movie would probably be nothing. The basketball scenes were good too, they were nicely shot. There wasn't any shaky cameras, they were shot still and clear. The dialogue for the most part was good and very uplifting especially when Coach Cater would give his speeches and lectures. I also liked some of the sub-plots, if a sports movie doesn't have any sub-plots it makes the movie a lot less interesting. I liked how this movie illustrated some of the difficult decisions these players had to make, it made the movie feel more real and interesting.

That being said, I did have some problems with this film. It was too long, they could have cut a scene or two and shortened it by at least 10 or 15 minutes. This movie also felt a little too preachy, like the scene where (POSSIBLE SPOILER!!!) after the gym is open and Samuel L. Jackson goes into the gym only to find his players sitting in desks doing their schoolwork to show that they're still willing to be loyal to him. This scene made me roll my eyes rather than make me feel something.

Overall, this is a level above most sports drama's mostly because of Samuel L. Jackson's performance and the fact that this movie actually does manage to be inspirational even if it's too long and preachy.