National Champions

Writer Adam Mervis put out a pretty good plot on this one. The flick was interesting with little dead time. But the ending was abrupt. It felt like they just ran out of money, or couldn't think of a way to end the movie. What a let-down! At least they have room for a sequel. But kudos to Adam Mervis for an original plot and near-real storyline. Director Rick Roman Waugh did a good job getting interesting and believable performances from his actors, but the continuity needed some polishing. Some scene cuts and actor emotional transitions were a little confusing. Kudos for the producers choosing to shoot in New Orleans, where they could use the money influx.

As a 116 mins long sports drama, I was expecting to see at least one game. But instead it was scenes in and out of hotel rooms with some soap-opera melodramatics and twists. I will say though, this did feel very real, and I'm curious if this story was conceived as a slap in the face to college football et al. The performances by all were excellent and captivating, especially J. K. Simmons, and the only reason I sat through the entire film. The ending was underwhelming, and I never did get to see any game, but the film was still unique and well put together. This may not be for everyone, especially if you don't follow college football or sports in general. It's a generous 7/10 from me.

8/10 - despite some clunky dialogue/story elements and me knowing next to nothing about college football, this fascinating dramatization of the ongoing NCAA debate is truly gripping and is empowered by the fantastic acting performances of Stephan James, J. K. Simmons, and most of all, Uzo Aduba (who in another universe would be Oscar-nominated for this emotionally riveting performance)

This is what you'd call a dialogue movie, and not half bad. The main gripes I have are wasting Jeffrey Donovan's talents, the horrid acting of the main character "LeMarcus", and the insanely bad overemotional acting on the black woman who was some sort of fixer. Each time someone questioned her she'd freak out, just waaaay overboard. JK Simmons as usual excellent performance wasn't enough to make up for this lady.

There's a lot of unfair hate in the reviews about it not showing a football game thus missing the point of the movie.

There are a couple side plots that are unnecessary which is why I subtracted a couple of stars but I highly recommend this movie to anyone that's interested in the debate whether student-athletes (or at least those playing football) deserve more than just an education and small stipend for playing at a collegiate level while the NC 2 A rakes in more dough than they need to subsidize scholarships for all student-athletes in all sports nationwide.

Personally I did more than a couple of papers on this subject in college and while I don't have an expert level of knowledge I do have more than zero and I'll leave it at that. The acting was actually really good, save one female actor, and the script writing was really good. Overall go in with zero expectations and you'll be entertained.