mediocre, prozac in on screen, "disney ruins a perfectly good true story"

Rating: 3/10 (15 August 2005)

ye gods...will people never tire of films that simply gloss over ugly history? stereotypes abound in this film: the black players are mostly a minstrel show (with the exception of julius who is the silent angry one). and among the white players are a bunch of corny hokey hicks and the hippie Californian. also, historical inaccuracy is just irksome. face the truth: not all whites were bad, not all blacks were noble. the football scenes weren't bad, but being a former linebacker, i was shushed several times for laughing at the inaccuracies. all in all, this is barely fit for grade school age kids (incidentally, the very group i rented the movie for: my niece and nephew, age 8 and 10, and even the youngest of the two had enough sense to be skeptical). heck while they were at it, why didn't the makers of this movie throw in a kid from the wrong side of the tracks who proves himself to have a heart of gold and a physically deformed kid with "shining inner beauty." the most entertaining part of the movie was seeing Denzel Washington ask one of his players "Who's your daddy?" well, that and watching a fumble being returned for a "touchdown"...in the wrong direction. seems bruckheimer can blow stuff up, but can't handle the simplest parts of football. stick to what you know.