Coach Carter (2005)
The Cast
Samuel L. Jackson .... Coach Ken Carter
Rob Brown .... Kenyon Stone
Robert Ri'chard .... Damien Carter
Rick Gonzalez .... Timo Cruz
Nana Gbewonyo .... Junior Battle
Antwon Tanner .... Worm
Channing Tatum .... Jason Lyle
Ashanti .... Kyra
Texas Battle .... Maddux
Denise Dowse .... Principal Garrison
Directed by Thomas Carter, Coach Carter (no relation I think) is based on the life of Ken Carter, a high school basketball coach that benched his team because they didn't live up to the academic agreement they made before the season began. Kinda like Lean On Me, mixed with some Mighty Ducks & Mystery, Alaska too. It's very nearly your typical, formula, inspirational sports movie.
There's actually not a lot to talk about with this movie. It's an MTV Films production, which means the soundtrack is full of a bunch of hippity-hoppity types of music that's guaranteed to sell albums to the coveted urban market, & guaranteed to have me grin & bear it. The main cast is basically Sam Jackson & a bunch of unknowns, which is perfectly fine & works well for the movie. These are supposed to be regular high school kids, & none of them seem miscast in the least. Well, maybe Ashanti was a bit of stunt casting, though she did guest on an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer once. Alright, her casting is forgiven.
I just realized I might be coming across as glib & sarcastic, when those really aren't my feelings about this movie. Just like singinggrrl, I have Mighty Ducks Syndrome. I tend to like my inspirational sports movies predictable, with people growing from their losses & what not. If you can't learn something from defeat, then you're doomed to fail again & again.
Jackson is his usual awesome self as the conflicted Coach Carter, satisfied with his team's oncourt performances, but absolutely devastated by their inability to grow as people. Everyone else has their formulaic high school sports persona to play ('cept there's no big fat party animal guy.. that must only be in high school football movies), & they perform well. Like I said, not much to talk about, other than I was a little surprised that I enjoyed the movie as much as I did.
With a stellar headlining performance by Sam Jackson, & a better than average supporting cast of relative unknowns, Coach Carter is almost surprisingly excellent. It's not a new idea or a fresh story, but it's "delightfully predictable" in the words of the lovely singinggrrl. I'll go with a solid 4 outta 5.
Roger Ebert's review