A strong, feel-good movie

Rating: 7/10 (14 June 2001)

This film is entertaining, well-written, and definitely one that will get you cheering for the team! The down-side is that it's at times melodramatic and overly-tear-jerking and uses almost every sentimental cliche ever written at least once. While there are some great lines ('God wants you on the floor, son') there are also some *horribly* cliched lines as well ('I've wanted to kiss you since the moment we first met!')
Gene Hackman is fabulous in this, as the former college coach turned Navyman who comes to small town Hickory, IA to coach basketball. And being from Bloomington, I can vouch for the frenzied obsession we of Indiana have for basketball;), so it was no surprise to see how unwelcome he was in town with unorthodox methods and bing an outsider as well (always a good kicker for a plot). Add the loss of then best player in town, who decides not to play ball that year, and the challenge is on!
But the plot slips away too much at times. The Dennis Hopper as an alcoholic former basketball star who is given a chance to be an assistant if he cleans up plotline could have been interesting; but his 'agonized' moments on the floor dragged on too much, and the plot turned sour when he relapsed, and was eventually discarded and never resolved properly (save for a sloppy and cheezy heartstrings moment where his son declares that they'll move in together when it's all over, -snif-snif-snif-). As well, the shameless and worthless attempt to inject romance into the film stuttered and failed...Barbara Hershey playing a colleague who the coach gets off on the wrong foot with and then falls for, is too typical and rated barely a glimpse or two in the overall story. Why bother?? It was a subplot that had absolutely nothing to do with the story, hardly had any screen time, and was never properly dealt with. It was just wasted screen time.
Still, the film as a whole is worth the cheeziness of some parts. The ending is predictable, but in a heart-swelling way. Sure, some of the scenes are a bit too long and jerking, but in the end it doesn't matter because it just feels right. It's handled as well as possible, considering it has to be Hollywood, even in little Hickory. A solid film, could have been better, but not by too much. 7/10.