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Initial Thought: Here we have another culture clashing inspirational sports movie. The trailers looked fairly decent. I guess I must be in the mood for these right now. This is another Disney one as well.
Characters/Acting: This time Kevin Costner leads the group to victory. His character seems to stereotype in this though. I find all the characters here to be quite interesting. I need someone in my life like Jim White to push me past the limits I have. Danny's character kind of inspires me as I feel the same way he does. I just wish I had the drive he does. One thing I had an issue with is that Carlos Pratts is 28 years old playing a young teenager. He looks his age and it's hard to take him seriously as anything less. Other than that I really think him and the rest of the cast are incredible.
Story: A coach teaches a group of athletes how to become cross country champions. Ah this is one of those sports movies that deals somewhat with gang violence. I thought at times it reminded me of Unbroken with the Olympics part of that story. There are some great moments throughout the entire thing. The ending was excellent. I liked seeing the real runners and coach at the very end. It was also intriguing to learn about their lives after running. This story was truly incredible and inspirational. It may have been somewhat cliche, but really when it's based on a true story there isn't much you can do about that.
Directing/Writing: The director here Niki Caro also wrote and directed Whale Rider which was an amazing film. This took three writers to make. One of the writers Christopher Cleveland also did Glory Road which was pretty good. Bettina Gilois also worked on Glory Road. This is Grant Thompson's writing debut.
Final Thought: It does have it's cliches as usual for this kind of thing. I do wish for once that things are really good from the get go and maybe something happens later that changes things until the resolve. I thought this was a pretty touching film. It probably gave me the boost I needed to get myself pushing towards my goals. This film truly inspires you to want to do better. I absolutely loved it and definitely recommend it.
