Typical, done before, but excellent nonetheless

Rating: Null/10 (22 February 2005)

Coach Carter is not new. We saw it with Dangerous Minds, we've seen it with numerous other films...the teacher who touches the lives of all his difficult students with his unique style. But this format doesn't make a film bad, on the contrary, it's a heart felt concept that could work very well and Coach Carter is no exception.
Coach Carter is the story of Ken Carter, a man who takes a job coaching an inner city basketball team that he played for in his youth, who's academic records barely exist. The kids are in trouble, they come from hard backgrounds and are into drug dealing, and fighting and basically they only come to school to play Ball. Carter is tough right from the beginning, having come from the school himself, he knows what must be done. The students have never had this kind of control over them and they gradually begin to see Carter's rules and style is going to help them win Basketball but more importantly save their lives.
Samuel L. Jackson shows an amazing amount of heart in this movie, something he doesn't usually show. I thought he was much too rough around the edges to perform in a film like this but I was wrong. His rough around the edges style is broken through with heart and passion which is perfect for this role. The best part of the film in my opinion was the detachment from one key part of this teacher helping the students formula and that was that nothing horribly bad happened to any of the students. They had rough lives but there was nothing horrible that shakes them all up ie. Death, drug overdose etc etc. Perhaps this being based on a true story assisted in that. Instead the film keeps it's high moral message and gives us a glimpse into what was truly accomplished. Jackson as Carter never falters on his morals or what he wants to do and he fights the system for these kids and that's the most touching part of the film. He teaches them that win or lose their lives will never be worth losing because of a lack of self respect. This film is touching and gritty and a definite keeper.
8/10