Winners At The Buzzer!

Rating: 7/10 (12 December 2005)

I've seen this movie a thousand times, but I've never gotten the time to write a review on it, but today, I'm able to, so, here goes.
With a "Hardball" spin off, Coach Carter takes the team into another dimension of high school basketball. Where in the world there's the perfect coach with the perfect team, this world, in Richmond High School, is an imperfect world. Teeangersare raised by unwanted parents. College is almost a distant cry on the radar screen, and the foreseeable future is a doormat that's already been stepped on thousands of times, there's nothing that's in sight for a team that can never seem to stop losing, until their's a job vacancy for the coaching job after the original coach for the team resigns (I would understand why).
Ken Carter (Samuel L. Jackson) steps up to the plate and is handpicked by the school to be the successor for the school basketball team, as their coach. He accepts the job, and almost immediately, his presence is felt by both the players and school, as the players are being treated by prisoners, worked like animals, and rode on like horses. With all the calamity going on, Carter turns the teams into winners, enabling an undefeated record, until he notices that his team has another problem. Grades.
After finding out that the majority of his students are barely passing (or even failing) their courses, Carter locks out the gym and practice, putting chains on the gym doors, forfeiting games, and locking his students in the school library until the grades start to show improvement. To insure that his players are to get better, and to put pressure on them to be better, Carter demands that all the players' teachers issue weekly progress reports on their grades. Could this all try and help the players become better students, or in Carter's case, men? Can he help get his players into a decent college without getting arrested (and hopefully not gunned down)? That's all up in the air as the parents get restless, and the district decides that to end the lockout, Carter must resign his coaching position to allow the students to play...
All of this may make this movie sound like its a dark, depressing teen movie, but its not. Its a movie that uplifts the courage of man, and shows that people need to try hard in order to succeed, to not throw in the towel just because they cannot do it. Life was not made like the yellow-brick road. Life was made with many challenges, and if you cannot leave up to them, you might as well end up sitting your tush in prison, because you're not willing to accept full responsibility.
Jackson delivers a stand-up performance in this movie (not surprising at all), and director Thomas Carter (no relation to the real coach), shows a potential director in him, as despite some well known clichés are used in the film, let's not get carried away with them, as the movie has more ups, than it does down. It focuses also on racial equality, as derogatory words are used as enemies, not as allies, and enable a more substantial taste and flavor to the movie that was based on a true story.
Stand up, cheer, do whatever you feel is right. It's just boys playing basketball, isn't it?