Marketing itself as one of the best sports films ever, the latest football movie about a team of overachieving high school jocks and their inspirational coach hit the big screen.
Filmed with the ever popular and annoying shaky cam where you only see flashes of action, extreme close-ups and a constantly moving camera the film also decides to apply the same theory to the storyline.
The dramatic scenes that tie the smattering of football moments together have the same feel. They are short, jump quickly from point to point and fail to elicit any real emotion.
Coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thorton) is portrayed as the main character in the trailers, but he takes a backseat to three of the players. Not only does he become a secondary character, but is two-dimensional as absolutely nothing is learned about his character.
Football is the most important event in the town of Permian, a small city in Texas. There isn’t much for this town to be proud of and the few happy memories they have are from what they accomplished playing high school football.
This adds tremendous pressure to the young men of the Permian Panthers. No matter where they go or what they are doing, all everyone talks to them about is how they’re going to win the State Championship.
Failure is not an option as the city has hired Gary Gaines as the new head coach. It’s not until the townsfolk mention that there will be serious consequences should they not go undefeated that even the coach realizes how important it is for them to win.
Fortunately for the Panthers, they have the best running back in the state, Boobie Miles (Derek Luke). Not only can he rush the ball, but he’s an excellent receiver and even a passer when needed.
Just like many Allstar players, Boobie knows he’s a star and struts around like a rooster admiring his own greatness. He’s so good that he doesn’t work out with the team or work on his conditioning.
This comes back to haunt him when he tears the ligaments in his knee during the first game of the season and can never play football again.
Without their star player, the team must learn to come together and overcome their issues. They have one running back Chris (Lee Thompson Young) who has never played in a game and runs out of bounds whenever he might be hit, another running back Don (Garrett Hedlund) who can’t hold onto the ball without fumbling, and a quarterback Mike (Lucas Black) who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders.
The team slowly begins to gel together, but the fans are not forgiving as they leave for sale signs on the coach’s front lawn after losing their first game. Everyone in the town has an opinion and voices it at every opportunity.
Chris' problems seem to disappear with more playing time as he learns to take a hit and becomes one of the best running backs in the league.
Don's situation is more difficult as he must deal with an alcoholic father who won state when he was a teenager, and throws it in his face.
Mike learns to deal with the pressure and live for himself with the help of Coach Gaines and finally learns to smile and enjoy the game.
With all of these players stepping up and becoming men, they manage to make it into the playoffs and into the Championship game.
Ultimately, what makes this an unsatisfying sports story is the fact that they don’t win. There are hundreds of teams that play above their capabilities and don’t succeed, so what’s so special about this one? There’s nothing that makes them stand out from all of the other teams that have come before them.
And if you’re really paying attention, you may have noticed that the Panthers are behind by two touchdowns at the end of the State Championship game. That makes the last 15 minutes of the film where they struggle to score their final touchdown irrelevant.
Even if they hadn’t been stopped at the goal line as time ran out, they still need to come back and score another just to tie the game. |
