Talk about "Coach Carter" here:
Review by: Breanne Derby
Plot Summary
Based on a true story, this film takes place in Richmond, California, where sporting-goods store-owner, Ken Carter (played by Samuel L. Jackson) returns to his home-town to coach basketball at the high-school he attended. He has high hopes of inspiring the team and showing them that though their town is stricken with poverty, they can still shine through and change their lives for the better, like he did.
Review
When I first heard of this movie, I thought that it was going to be a basketball version of "Remember the Titans", and it did bear some similarities to it, though as a whole, it was quite different. The film opened with flashes of plays written out on notebook paper, as the town of
Richmond was being introduced. Unfortunately, entertaining as these shots were, they didn't particularly pertain to the rest of the movie, except that I imagine Coach Carter would have written out the plays on paper; never again do we see even a reminisce of these beginnings; I was slightly disappointed, but I quickly got over that.
As someone who knows nothing and takes no interest in basketball, I wasn't expecting to enjoy this film. I assumed that the majority of it would be people playing basketball, and that I would be bored or confused because I do not know anything about the game. Before watching this movie, I had never seen a basketball game played or acted. Fortunately for me, my assumptions were wrong, and this movie turned out to be an actual story, and not just one continuous basketball game. Some of the movie was about playing basketball, but most of it was about life in general, and growing-up and learning that our way of life can be changed, and in that manner, this movie was quite similar to "Remember the Titans".
I was really pulled into this movie, and I enjoyed watching the elaborate lives of the players unfold. Each of the team-members had a story behind them, and one by one, these stories were revealed with a bit of prodding by Coach Carter, who Samuel L. Jackson did a very excellent job of portraying. Actually, all of the people cast did an excellent job of playing their parts. My one complaing is that Robert Ri'chard, who played Damien Carter, the coach's son, looked way too old to be a freshman, but his age isn't a particularly crucial part of the story, and even though he looks five years older than he should, it didn't hinder the storyline at all.
This film showed both the boyish-high-school side of things and the seriousness in the lives of the young men living in Richmond. It (in my mind) accurately portrayed that line between childhood and adulthood that all high-school students teeter back and forth on; only perhaps the students of Richmond, are a bit closer to adulthood than the rest because they are required to take care of themselves.
I really liked the conclusive endings that told how the players' lives turned out, and that was really what gave me my first clue that the movie was based on a true story. I went into it thinking that it was entirely made-up, and going to be about basketball, and came out of it knowing that it was a heartwarming story of what one coach tried to do for his basketball team, showing them a new way of life. I was actually quite surprised that this was based on a true story, because it seems so far-fetched. It seemed like an ideal circumstance that would never actually take place in the real world. I thought that if things were real, it wouldn't have worked out the way it did, but I suppose non-fiction is sometimes more surprising than fiction, and in this case, it certainly was. This movie made me consider the fact that there are good people in the world, even when bad things happen.
Conclusion
As a whole, I thought that this film was slightly cheesy, but without a doubt a feel-good movie and it wouldn't be a bad one to watch when you’re "feeling down". It has a few good one-liners; much like real life. I think that perhaps the drama was a bit exaggerated as it was "based on" a true story, and not necessarily "closely following" a true story, but it was still very good. I would watch it again because I really got into the story, though I probably won't really remember much about it in a week or two, which might be a good thing so that I will be sitting on the edge of my seat trying to figure out what happens to each of the team-members. I gave this movie four out of five stars, because I liked it, and if you have tastes similar to mine, you will too.
