The Only Highlight Here Is Samuel L. Jackson

Rating: 4/10 (15 July 2005)

Based on a real life story that made national news in 1999, Samuel Jackson plays Coach Ken Carter, the controversial high school basketball coach who benched his entire undefeated team due to their poor performance in their classes.
I admire the message from Coach Carter but I did not actually like the movie. The story is your typical sports movie with all the clichés. The film is also based on a true story though I wonder how much of that truth was put into the movie. The film was very unrealistic at times and this brought down the quality. For example, the number of push-ups and suicides he makes them do every day is flat out ridiculous. There were a few other annoying parts but they didn't bring down the film too much. I also didn't like the way this movie handled abortion. Kyra (Ashanti) is pregnant and she is really excited about having the baby. Until, she breaks up with her boyfriend and she gets an abortion. She tells him this and all he says is, "aw man you should have told me, so I could have been there with you". This response was really stupid as was the whole subplot. This whole thing felt like MTV's approach to the problem, like it doesn't really matter.
The acting is quite strong and it is the only thing Coach Carter has going for it. Samuel L Jackson was great as Coach Carter and he made the film. If it wasn't for his presence, than the film would have been worse. Everyone on the basketball team also gave good performances though no one really stands out. Also, none of the characters were very interesting. Ashanti proves she can act with a decent performance here. However, she doesn't get a lot of screen time.
Sport clichés are pretty much unavoidable. It doesn't mean that the film is bad, it just means that there really isn't anything new. Miracle and Friday Night Lights were both clichéd yet both were good films. I can't really say the same for Coach Carter though. The film was just too long for a predictable story and it also lacked compelling characters. Miracle was also 134 minutes long yet it had interesting characters and it wasn't as dull. Even the basketball games in Coach Carter weren't very interesting and this hurt the film for me.
The movie also pounds it's message into the viewer's head without really giving a good argument. Yes, school should come first but it would be different in this case because most of the players only have basketball to rely on. They come from a poor neighborhood and even if they do get their grades up, most will still not go to college. The end of the film kind of proved that as only six of the players actually went to college. Even if they didn't go to college, the fact that they still tried to make something of themselves is still a nice message. Though I think the players should have focused more on basketball if that was their stronger point. In the end, I would still recommend Coach Carter but it really didn't do anything for me. Rating 4/10