Coach Carter

Ken Carter (Jackson) takes over a losing California high school basketball team and employs extreme measures to turn things around.

Yes, we have seen this before: a hard-assed coach molds his players into the image he desires for them. Yes, Samuel L. Jackson pontificates a lot in here. But all coaches pontificate to a large degree and it is justified. And, yes, it is a little too long, but so what? The basketball scenes are truly something to behold. The acting all around is excellent. And, yes, this is a terrific movie.

Okay, now for the down side. Why does Carter wait until the team is 9-0 to find out his players are not living up the contract they signed with him? The players are falling behind academically and Carter locks them out of the gym until they turn things around. But, waiting until 9-0 doesn't seem to have bothered anyone. Something doesn't seem right here, but no one has questioned this aspect. Even Carter doesn't say he should have looked harder sooner. Why not?

Now, in real life Carter owned a sports store. That is probably the reason I kept seeing different uniforms for just about every different game. When some basketball game scenes opened I had to wait until Carter calls the team over to the bench to see what players were his team, and then I knew what color jerseys his team had on. Before that, the action was so fast and furious I couldn't really tell. It's not like the players' faces were widely recognizable to viewers.

This is must see movie.

'Coach Carter' is based on a true story of Coach Ken Carter, a controversial high school basketball coach played by Samuel L. Jackson. Coach Carter took the coaching job under his rules. He believed that the players must maintain good grades and become a united team or they would not play. All the team players signed his contract to do just that. The team was undefeated and on it's way to the 1999 State Championship, when Coach Carter received the low grades of his players. Coach Carter received national attention when he locked the gym and benched the whole team for poor grades. Coach Carter received some praise and much more criticism for his decision. This is a good inspirational movie of what one must do to excel in sports and in life. Coach Carter taught his players that they must be committed and work hard to excel. This is good movie for people who like sports. (Paramount, Run time 2:16, Rated PG-13)(8/10)

"Coach Carter" is a well-made movie, and from what I have heard it stays true to the actual story. If you're sick of inspirational-type movies, then don't go see it, but otherwise I highly recommend it. All of the performances are at least tolerable, and most are really good. Samuel L. Jackson is great. Most sports movies have terrible action scenes, but the basketball footage in the movie is actually quite believable (for example, no short white kids dunking and things like that). The movie is very realistic, and the director has gone to great lengths to make it seem as true-to-life as possible. I think it works very well.

There are many movies similar in plot and theme to Coach Carter but this movie stands well on it's own. Most of the credit for that has to go to the star, Samuel L. Jackson. They could not have found a better man to play this role. I do not know much about the coach this movie is based on, but I can not imagine anything better or stronger than what Jackson has given us here.

The story is pretty much like any other. A former basketball star from the early 70's is asked to coach this year's team due to the fact that the old coach is not able to keep the kids focused on their grades, coming to class, etc. Where this movie differs, and what makes this better than most movies of this type, is the depth it goes into in most of the players on the team. The bigger stars have their own back stories and reasons for why they are the way they are.

Obviously, judging the acting, Samuel L. Jackson is head and shoulders above the rest but others who stand out here are Rick Gonzalez, Antwon Tanner and Robert Ri'chard. Each of these guys played their characters to a tee. Overall, if you want to see an inspiring movie and feel like it accomplished it's purpose at the end, I can recommend Coach Carter to you. 8/10

Sport obviously not the special themes for movies."Jerry Maguire","The Replacements","Any Given Sunday",etc.Hollywood already made it in like 1000 years ago.And mostly had great success in Box-Office and also great story.This year,Coach Carter prove it again.This movie was a representative for great Sport-movie in 2005!Coach Carter showed up and challenge this summer with Lots of wonderful and amazing things.Samuel.L.Jackson undoubtful again was the most stunning,excellent and superb actor of all time.He just could make it!Supporting by lots of great and amazing newcomers like Antwon Tanner or Channing Tatum.Maybe there was also the biggest mistake Ashanti joined this movie.However and Whatever it is,This Movie(plus the Promising Director:Thomas Carter!)was The Best!Loved it!Liked it!Two-Thumbs Up and crowds of applause for Coach Carter!