From the Rough

Taraji P.Henson played the role of a caring, but tough, take-no-excuses coach perfectly. The movie was well done and sweet (although the British dude was a bit annoying). Taraji is a very good actress and hopefully her talents will be further recognized in Hollywood. She should be carrying mainstream movies. If there is a movie god, please never let this woman be relegated to lower roles such as maids, servants, slaves or second fiddle. Taraji proved that she can headline a movie with her performance in this movie. She carried it, and was tough as nails and looked beautiful to boot. Great for kids and inspiring for girls and young women of all hues. Michael Clarke Duncan, although only having a few speaking parts, was also good and Henry Simmons was fine as always.

To bad this doesn't tell the story of the first golf team she had, which was actually all black players, 2 of which were injured football players and one girl. Wondered what actually happened to those first black golfers at the historically black college. The movie starts with one black golfer and 4 foreign players as her founding year.

The movie has a very interesting quote, about how we see the outer walls up high knowingly well that sooner or later, they will come down, and we'll be left with our own walls to deal with. So many things to learn from one single movie, most important being.. excuses don't work, whatever your background or resources you have, you can still win. And that should be the only aim. Loved the movie!

I am an alumnae of TSU and I was looking forward to seeing this movie. There was a buzz about it, then nothing. I was so happy to find it on Netflix tonight and couldn't wait to view it. I never heard of Coach Starks even though I attended the school during the late 1990s. I enjoyed the film for what it was, but I thought it would be...more. More epic, more real, more dramatic. I think more time was needed to really develop the story and characters, but the acting was solid. I almost cried when I saw Michael Clark Duncan! Also, I would have loved to see our beautiful campus and some shots of Nashville. Overall, it was a good movie. It just didn't live up to my expectations.

Couched within a story about a female African-American coach in a man's world, we discover a parable demonstrating how the combination of dedication, persistence and human compassion can overcome any number of obstacles one encounters in life, both external and self-imposed. The backdrops of an HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) as the setting for both gender and (reverse) race bias, politics within a university system, and a few 'good-old-boy' networks help set the stage for the development of the main character played so ably by Taraji Henson. The film effectively develops the secondary story about the group of young men who comprise the golf team struggling to make adjustments in an unfamiliar environment as they transition from adolescence to maturity. Michael Clarke Duncan's character adds a comforting, soothing balm throughout the film. Henry Simmons' does quite a bit with his portrayal of the antagonist as a conflicted administrator, though the part is written rather thinly. Consistent humor throughout the film effectively keeps the film moving along swiftly and helps prevent it from becoming 'message-heavy'. At film's end you're likely to come away smiling and carrying a heart-warming feel-good aura about you as well… and oh, by the way, it's based on a true story; enjoy!