Terrific

Rating: 8/10 (25 June 2005)

Ken Carter (Jackson) takes over a losing California high school basketball team and employs extreme measures to turn things around.
Yes, we have seen this before: a hard-assed coach molds his players into the image he desires for them. Yes, Samuel L. Jackson pontificates a lot in here. But all coaches pontificate to a large degree and it is justified. And, yes, it is a little too long, but so what? The basketball scenes are truly something to behold. The acting all around is excellent. And, yes, this is a terrific movie.
Okay, now for the down side. Why does Carter wait until the team is 9-0 to find out his players are not living up the contract they signed with him? The players are falling behind academically and Carter locks them out of the gym until they turn things around. But, waiting until 9-0 doesn't seem to have bothered anyone. Something doesn't seem right here, but no one has questioned this aspect. Even Carter doesn't say he should have looked harder sooner. Why not?
Now, in real life Carter owned a sports store. That is probably the reason I kept seeing different uniforms for just about every different game. When some basketball game scenes opened I had to wait until Carter calls the team over to the bench to see what players were his team, and then I knew what color jerseys his team had on. Before that, the action was so fast and furious I couldn't really tell. It's not like the players' faces were widely recognizable to viewers.
This is must see movie.