Yeast Infection

Rating: Null/10 (2 April 2007)

Inspirational sports movies are like yeast infections--treat them badly and they just keep coming back. Coach Carter is yet another in an endless line of movies with underdog teams proving everyone wrong and winning (or in this case . . . ) the big game. The only thing that stands out in CC is Samuel L. Jackson (who does a great Samuel L. Jackson impression in everything he does). Even when he's sleepwalking through a movie, he has the command presence that keeps you watching even when you have something better to do--like changing the air in your basketball.
What I found most distressing about this 135 minute cliché is the whole inner-city, gangsta culture. At every level, there's something for adults to cringe at and kids to try to emulate. You know knuckleheads all across the country are watching the movie, not for the freedom-comes-from-academics theme, but for the Ebonics and the baggy clothes and the trash talk and the "bitches." It's the sight of kids running up and down a court playing a game. You could show two hours of ESPN in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and a lot of the audience would just sit there lapping it up.
Here, we get a big bag o' drama along with the game stuff, a veritable full-meal-deal.
Keep it real!