This earnest indie production comes across like formulaic fiction while taking cues (and recycling cliches) from the 'inspirational sports drama' playbook.
2 Comments
09/29/08
Forever Strong (2008)
33
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:18
Fresh:6
Rotten:12
Average Rating:4.7/10
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Rick Penning (Sean Faris, Never Back Down) lives life just like he plays rugby; fast, hard-hitting and intense for a team coached by his overbearing father (Neal McDonough, Minority Report). When... [More]
Starring: Gary Cole, Sean Faris, Arielle Kebbel, Julie Warner
Director: Ryan Little
Reviews for Forever Strong
1 - 19 (sorted by comments; UK critics are listed first)
Top CriticIt's definitely possible to make artful message movies -- just consider the filmography of ex-Mormon iconoclast Richard Dutcher -- but Forever Strong is generic faith-and-redemption fare, devoid of nuance.
09/26/08
Shares the secret sin of many a pigskin pic: Despite all the macho posturing, the corny story is just as sappy as anything on Lifetime.
09/24/08
The very Tom Cruise-like Sean Faris makes this respectable portrayal noteworthy considering the gritty sport's irrelevancy to most Americans.
09/27/08
While it does boast some of the expected tropes and formulas of cinematic sports dramas, it's a competent, entertaining and involving movie that features a decent message about self-discipline and redemption.
09/25/08
There's something disheartening about seeing real-life stories and their inevitable complexities put through the Hollywood sausage machine and transformed into bland parables.
09/26/08
The movie is well shot and edited, the rugby scenes are enjoyable (if likely puzzling to the uninitiated) and Strong's earnestness excuses at least some of its predictability.
09/26/08
Top CriticThough director Ryan Little puts together a clean, professional package, at bottom this is a nearly-two-hour scrum of therapeutic direct encounters.
09/24/08
Contrived corniness abounds.
09/22/08
The whole package here is warmed-over mush from a hundred other sports movies, a tale padded out with game footage, training sequences, absurd coincidences, life lessons that teach nothing and wasted casting.
09/24/08
[Director Ryan] Little and cinematographer T.C. Christensen make you feel the heat in every scrum.
09/26/08
American rugby is the setting for this earnest sausage party of macho posturing, bro-dacious life lessons and value-focused sportsmanship that give wayward teens the strength to rise above sinful temptations.
09/24/08
Gives the word "forgettable" a bad name.
09/26/08
As directed by Ryan Little and written by David Pliler, Forever Strong dredges up every sports movie cliché and stereotype ever invented. (Cue the slow-mo in the rain.)
09/26/08
No review available.
10/18/08
Top CriticClick to read the article
10/18/08
Top CriticThe father-son relationship that bolts this rugby film together provides the textured backdrop for a sports film that engages
04/18/09
Created under the vague guise of "inspirational cinema," Strong is a sloppy, soggy pile of clichés, unable to sort itself out, grow a pair of cinematic cojones, and actually try to subvert some of its rancid formula.
06/10/09
Uplifting jock drama is predictable but OK for older tweens.
06/17/09
1 - 19 (sorted by comments; UK critics are listed first)
Latest News for Forever Strong
August 24, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review 
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