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MOVIES / ON DVD / COACH CARTER
Coach Carter

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Coach Carter (2005)

63%
67%
78%
N/A
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63 %
Reviews Counted: 136 Fresh: 85  Rotten:51 Average Rating: 6/10
 
Consensus: Like a good point guard, Samuel L. Jackson is the clear leader on the floor in a film that critics say transcends its formula trappings to be inspirational. However, some have said the film is too preachy and too long.... Like a good point guard, Samuel L. Jackson is the clear leader on the floor in a film that critics say transcends its formula trappings to be inspirational. However, some have said the film is too preachy and too long. more
 
Runtime: 2 hrs 16 mins
Synopsis:
In the tradition of LEAN ON ME and DANGEROUS MINDS comes COACH CARTER, an inspirational drama starring Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson portrays real-life figure Ken Carter, who graduated from California's Richmond High only to return there years later, in 1999, and take over as head coach of the... [More]
In the tradition of LEAN ON ME and DANGEROUS MINDS comes COACH CARTER, an inspirational drama starring Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson portrays real-life figure Ken Carter, who graduated from California's Richmond High only to return there years later, in 1999, and take over as head coach of the boys' basketball team. Unfortunately, the troubled school he remembered as a teenager is an even more insufferable place in his adulthood. Determined to make a change in his players' lives, Carter makes each young man sign a contract that ensures he will maintain a 2.3 GPA, attend every class, and wear a jacket and tie on game day. Of course, the players reject the contract at first, but when they realize that they don't have any other choice, they give in. And when it appears that their tough-as-nails coach is actually turning them into winners on the court, they embrace their coach's philosophy even further. But when Coach Carter receives the incomprehensibly awful progress reports of his players, he does the unthinkable: he benches the entire team. Directed by Thomas Carter (SAVE THE LAST DANCE), COACH CARTER is a sensitive drama that features an impassioned performance by Jackson, as well as the impressive young cast (most notably Rob Brown, Rick Gonzalez, and Robert Ri'Chard). [Less]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Ri'chard, Rob Brown, Debbi Morgan, Ashanti

Director: Thomas Carter
Screenwriter: Mark Schwahn, John Gatins
Producer: Brian Robbins, Mike Tollin, David Gale

DVD Info

Release:

Sep 8, 2005

[DVD Details]

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Ratings Image

A worthy addition to familiar triumph-of-the-underdog stories.

Full Review | Comment
03/25/08 01:27 PM
Leigh Singer
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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On paper a routine sports yarn. On screen, thanks to Jackson refusing to phone it in, far more satisfying than you might expect.

Full Review | Comment
04/01/06 03:28 AM
Simon Braund
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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Although this is an inspirational genre pic that pushes all the requisite buttons throughout, you can’t help but feel that rather than benching the team, director Thomas Carter should have benched a few of those ham-fisted sporting clichés instead.

Full Review | Comment
02/09/06 03:16 AM
Chris Tilly
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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[Jackson] is, of course, born to shout things at teenagers on basketball courts and he delivers all the time-honoured usual speeches with his customary brilliance

Full Review | Comment
02/26/05 10:25 PM
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon
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Over long and deeply manipulative, Coach Carter should nonetheless be praised for its far-from-fashionable celebration of personal advancement through academic achievement.

Full Review | Comment
02/08/05 10:15 PM
Neil Smith
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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Entertaining ... but you do wish they'd tell the tale without funnelling it through Hollywood's inspirational movie assembly line.

Full Review | Comment
01/16/05 10:15 PM
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
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This is supposed to be about setting high standards, yet it's full of fudged ultimatums; in the end I couldn't be sure whether its morality was complex or just confused.

Full Review | Comment
03/25/08 01:25 PM
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader
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There's a kick butt performance from Samuel Jackson, the master of the take-no-prisoners motormouth school of acting, even if it is only a high school gym.

Full Review | Comment
03/24/07 01:38 PM
Prairie Miller
Long Island Press
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Far from groundbreaking--in fact, it doesn't have an original bone in its body--but as inspirational sports movies go, it's not half-bad.

Full Review | Comment
03/01/07 03:56 AM
Ethan Alter
Film Journal International
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Samuel L. Jackson shouts, yells, bellows, and screams his way through the fact-inspired film

Full Review | Comment
10/06/06 01:01 PM
Nathan Rabin
Onion AV Club
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Its main flaws are an overabundance of sports-movie clichés and hackneyed phrases, but at least the final game doesn't have a predictable ending; I'll give it that much.

Full Review | Comment
09/11/06 01:36 PM
Mark Moring
Christianity Today
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Cinematographer Sharon Meir and film editor Peter Berger brilliantly capture the magic, thrills and extraordinary talent of the fear-inspired players, putting their hearts and souls into the game.

Full Review | Comment
12/06/05 07:37 PM
S. James Wegg
Film Threat
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Not a whole lot of fun. Or for that matter, any fun whatsoever.

Full Review | Comment
09/26/05 03:15 AM
Nathan Rabin
Onion AV Club
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Formulaico, é verdade, mas inteligente o bastante para utilizar os clichês a seu favor, sem se esquecer de incluir bons diálogos e uma mensagem relevante.

| Comment
09/11/05 12:05 AM
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena
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Slam Dunk!

Full Review | Comment
07/12/05 04:49 PM
Kamal 'The Diva' Larsuel
3BlackChicks Review
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Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
07/05/05 06:48 PM
Jules Brenner
Cinema Signals
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Saved by bursts of energy and inventiveness.

Full Review | Comment
07/05/05 06:48 PM
Ken Tucker
New York Magazine
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Without Sam L. Jackson on hand, I suspect Coach Carter would be almost too generic to even deal with.

Full Review | Comment
06/12/05 10:31 PM
Scott Weinberg
DVDTalk.com
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The writers miss almost every opportunity to say something important, thus depriving their characters (and actors) voices that might have made a difference.

Full Review | Comment
04/30/05 06:51 PM
John Larsen
Light Views
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Thumbing its way through that well-worn inspirational-educator playbook at a leisurely pace, the picture is studiously unspectacular.

Full Review | Comment
03/05/05 02:23 AM
Sean Burns
Philadelphia Weekly
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