Not enough meat on on the bone for two hours plus

Rating: 4/10 (19 May 2015)

These type of movies used to come out every now and than back in the 80s.But usually they only lasted 90 min which is what this one should have done. They have too many scenes you don't care about.At best it would have been a good 105 min movie.But 2 hours and 15 min is way too long They simply lack the pace to make you care that long.Some poor Latinos can make a cross country running team,but they have struggles at home and they have no money etc etc. We get it.It's been done hundred times before.Only difference is the sport and the ethnicity and the true story.
Kevin Costner does a fairly good job as coach. You have probably seen the whole Coach/teacher, who really,really cares about the poor and troubled misguided youth,a couple 100 times before. He doesn't do any worse or better than anyone before him.The only thing different here is, this one coaches a cross country running team, and that they are Latinos.That they are poor have been used before
Maria Bello is good as his wife.She really doesn't have all that much to work with.She is portraying the always supportive wife and loving mother.-the standard American portrayal of a wife
I like the story but there's really no mood setting that make you identify with it taking place in the 80s. All you hear is Spanish music,so you get that you're in the Spanish/Mexican neighborhood or in some poor part of town.(usually the only time Hollywood plays that type of music)
But they should've had a few 80s tunes in there just to set the place in time.The movie takes place in the 80s but there's nothing that tells it apart from today's.At least nothing that sticks out,and that is what I miss in this movie. Something that gives you a feeling that you're in the 80s, and makes you go snapping your finger to the beat,or nodding your head in recognition, while you watching the storyline unfold.
I'm not saying they should have filled it with 80s music but they should have had some tunes play on the radio or something that was typical of the year.A news broadcast of some event that took place in that particular year or something