Coach Carter wins with class
Photo courtesy Paramount Pictures
Samuel L. Jackson plays Ken Carter in this based-on-a-true-story film about an inner-city basketball team.
Dribbling with a crusading element to spark desire in twelve high school basketball players, Samuel L. Jackson scores with a solid performance in Coach Carter.
Based on the true story of Coach Ken Carter benching his entire high school basketball team for poor academic performance in 1999, the movie hinges on building up to the moment of the lock-out of the gym after the team has achieved an undefeated season.
Samuel L. Jackson carries the film by delivering a dynamic performance. He commands the boys' attention as well as the audience with riveting speeches with his " zero tolerance glare " and with enforcing a minimum standard of conduct on and off the court.
Returning to his alma mater in Richmond where his basketball records still stand, Carter takes a group of undisciplined and impoverished teenagers and fuses together a combination of fundamental basketball skills, moral implications, self-worth and academic achievement.
He challenges each player to earn the privilege to play basketball by signing a contract mandating a 2.3 GPA.
The Oilers prove to be a tough group of inner-city high school students with no incentive in the classroom or in the community to strive for a better life.
Carter drives his point of the value of education combined with basketball talent with the unnerving statistic that 80 percent of young black men in Richmond will end up in prison.
Entertaining to a diverse audience, the MTV production merits a classic sports film. Aside from hokey game scenes and dramatic fans, Coach Carter captures a realistic feel to the boys' situation, the triumph of teamwork and the values instilled for life.
The boys come to realize the value of Coach Carter's philosophy and work toward a brighter future by upholding the academic standard as agreed to in Carter's contract to play.
The film builds to a strong climax interspersed with down-to-earth storylines and molding of a team. Ashanti makes a debut performance portraying the pregnant girlfriend of college recruit Kenyon Stone (Rob Brown) alongside Timo Cruz's (Rick Gonzalez) drug-dealing saga.
From the point of the lock-out, the film drags slowly through the dramatic reactions of an agitated community. The film ends with a slight dramatic twist and six players heading to play ball in college.
