A Grande Jogada

Travis Freeman, a young football player becomes blind because of an tremendous eye infection. He is bad tempered. His friend Ashley tries to shake him and then comes Patty Wheatley, his rehabilitation coach, who shakes him also. And finally his coach Farris trusts on him: Travis will play again football.

A pleasant story of self improvement and also of friendship with a good pérformances of Mark Hapka, Bram Hoover, Stephen Lang, Alexa PenaVega,Kim Zimmer, Timothy Busfield, Becky Ann Baker Dylan Baker and Kevin Cooney.

These kind of sports movies are a hit or miss with me (no pun intended) the scripts all tend to be more or less the same, so it all comes down to if the director and cast is able to take it beyond the clichés and make you care for the characters.

And 23 BLAST does a pretty good job at that, it does come with a bit of a twist though in as the main football-hero is struck with blindness so I guess that helps to spark a greater interest because it's not exactly a common topic.

The cast are all fine, it has a bit of a TV-movie feel to it but overall yeah a good movie that doesn't get too depressing, in fact it made me laugh a couple times so yeah, it's no REMEMBER THE TITANS or BLIND SIDE but it's well worth seeing.

This movie is based upon a gentleman who became paralyzed via eyesight and overcame the odds in his battles in fighting and getting back to doing what he loved which was playing football.

Before I'm called heartless, let me just put out there how I have worked with kids with disabilities. So I understand the need for this type of genre, but I feel like this perpetuates this myth that persons with disabilities are perfect people who don't have sex drives, are super religious/self-righteous, and should always be right.

This is wrong. There are many types of truths that give people peace; it makes me sad that the movies who are courageous enough to handle tough topics like theodicy (religious Christian concept: why do bad things happen to good people?) never seem to develop more complex characters.

The only character struggles spiritually is Travis's best friend from school. His perspective is tossed aside as misguided; he's painted as a goof and mess-up while he is clearly suffering spiritually. Travis's "spiritual struggle" doesn't feel like much of a struggle at all. In fact, he's put on this pedestal. ("I am Travis Freeman.")

Aside from my philosophical issues with this movie, the dialogue was laughably bad.

"Why am I blind, dad?" "Too much infection."

"You're blind, son." "Is this going to last forever?"

"Travis has a minor infection we are treating with antibiotics." *(Five seconds pass)* "Travis is going in for surgery, now. He's running a 106 degree fever."

The only character I liked was the social worker; my two stars are for her. She wasn't preachy and prioritized him taking control over his health as opposed to "finding Jesus."

My other star is when Travis' friend takes him for a spin in the hospital; I really enjoyed that part. I feel like that scene encapsulated the little joys we appreciate when disability and serious life suffering enter our lives and the lives of those we love.

This movie is incredibly inspiring. I've always struggled to push myself out of my comfort zone. It was showed to everyone at our school and everyone loved it. Travis freemen (the real one) gave us a speech and told us how we can overcome every obstacle we come across. This movie opend my eyes and showed me I can do anything I put my mind to! This man is truly an inspiration to everyone he comes across. The movie is also really well written. The jokes, casting, writing, and the music goes together very well! I loved this movie and could watch it over and over again! It's also family friendly and teaches good lessons! 10/10.