Movie Info:
Writer: John Gatins, Mark Schwahn
Director: Thomas Carter
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Ashanti, Rob Brown, Rick Gonzalez, Antwon Tanner, Channing Tatum
Rating: PG 13
Studio: Paramount
Release Info:
Theatrical Release:
DVD Release Date: December 16, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon for $19.99
By now, I’ve seen most of the sports inspired, true story movies. I’ve seen the Remember the Titans and the Rudy types of movies, and as a sports fan I like them. The Coach Carter story isn’t anything new. It’s just with a different sport (basketball) then many of the other inspirational, based on a true story, sports movies. The only difference is the true story part of this movie only happened about ten years ago.
Coach Carter is a real person. He really did work at the High School in Richmond, CA. He also did shut out his players from their undefeated season when he found out that they weren’t fulfilling an academic contract he made them sign at the beginning of the season. While this initially sparked outrage in the community, the truth about Carter soon came out. He was on a quest to get his players an education that would ensure they could attend college. This soon made him a local and national hero.
Today, Coach Carter is still working in the community, though he no longer works at Richmond High School. He continues to inspire youth to receive a quality education. There isn’t a lot of opportunity for these students, who come from an inner-city, poor neighborhood. In fact, Carter helped to turn the school basketball program and the lives of his players around during his tenure at the school. He was still working at Richmond High when Samuel L. Jackson played Carter in this movie, which was originally released in 2005.
I’m not in love with this movie, merely because it’s like many of the inspirational films I’ve seen before. I’m glad the real Coach Carter stuck to his guns and made sure his players were educated. I just think we’ve seen so many of these inspirational, based on true story movies that it’s becoming old hat. Sure, fans of these types of movies are going to love Coach Carter, but I can only stomach this movie and others like it, every once in a blue moon.
The Coach Carter Plot
This inspirational, sports oriented film begins — where else — on the basketball court. With the basketball team taking on St. Francis, it isn’t long before a fight ensues. By the end of the game, it’s pretty clear that something needs to be done to help the struggling team. Kenneth Carter (Samuel L. Jackson) is the answer, or so it seems. Offered a measly $1,500 to coach the team at his old high school, it’s up to Coach Carter to make a difference.
Carter has a history with this team, which is located in Richmond, CA. This inner city school is where Carter played and today he still holds many of the school’s basketball records. After accepting the job, despite reservations based on the players’ uncontrollable behavior, he sets out to make them respect him with strict rules.
Things start off with him encouraging them to do well in school by making it mandatory that players have a 2.3 GPA, which is higher than the average required for players to play in the state. He also instructs them to sit at the front of their classrooms and to dress appropriately (jackets and ties) on the days they have games. Of course, many of the players do not like the new rules or Coach Carter. One of the players, Timo Cruz (Rick Gonzalez), even walks out on practice during the very first day. While other players walk out, including the two highest scoring players on the team, all seems lost for Carter and the rest of the unruly players.
Of course, hope can’t be lost when Coach Carter’s own son, Damien (Robert Ri’chard), steps up to the plate. One of the best players at the private school, St. Francis, Damien wants to come to Richmond High to help his dad. Of course, Coach Carter isn’t thrilled his son has dropped out of the private school, where he is attending to go to an inner-city public school. The coach only agrees once Damien agrees to maintain a 3.7 GPA.
With Damien on board, Coach Carter must inspire a rag tag group to fulfill their destiny and play their hearts out. Of course, many of the players have their own issues to deal with. One of them is Kenyon (Rob Brown), who gets his girlfriend, Kyra (Ashanti) pregnant. Kyra has decided not to attend college and to raise their baby. Timo Cruz hangs out with Renny (Vincent Laresca), his drug dealer cousin and he must decide to return and play or live out a life of crime.
With the team working together, Carter must battle cocky attitudes, bad behavior, disrespect, poor grades, and inconsistencies in his team to get them on a better path in their life. He is given no choice but to lock them out of their undefeated season, forfeiting games and sending them to the library during practice hours. Despite being hard on them, it’s clear Coach Carter cares. In typical, sports inspiration fashion this story is not only meant to entertain. It’s meant to inspire. Unfortunately, this same plot has been done many times over, in nearly every sport, with many more successful movies making their way onto DVD before this one.
Storyline/Plot: 
Replayability:
Acting:
Directing:
Audio/Visual:
Coach Carter looks much better than you might expect. The film doesn’t always make use of a high color range, but the level of detail and the black levels are 100% better than they were. The 1080p AVC encoded transfer offers quite a bit to this older movie. Blu-ray never seems to turn out perfect when the movie isn’t brand new. Still, this is a huge step above the standard DVD and fans will really enjoy seeing this in Blu-ray format. There is some softness and a small amount of blur, but the majority of the film is sharp and clear. The problems here are small and generally not annoying enough to even consider.
The audio for Coach Carter is handled with Dolby TrueHD 5.1. The audio gets the job done, but it’s not about to win any awards. The dialogue sits comfortable on the center channel, which allows a nice sense of realism. The various shouts and effects offer a bit of dynamic sound. Not all channels are used, but for a dialogue rich film everything sounds fine. I felt that some of the game sequences could have been stronger and the music could have been stronger, but for what it is there isn’t too much to complain about. In addition to an English track, there are tracks in French and Spanish in Dolby Digital 5.1. Subtitles are available in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Visual: 
Audio:
Bonus Features:
It looks as if the special feature section is made up of a few exclusives along with all of the older DVD bonus material. There is nothing wrong with adding old special features to a release like this, but there isn’t a whole lot to sink your teeth into here.
“The Man Behind the Movie” lasts for twenty minutes and works as a documentary that talks about the real Ken Carter and his life and career. Interviews are offered by cast, crew, and the real Carter’s family and friends. If you like the movie you will enjoy learning more about the real man. There isn’t anything too deep here, but it’s worth watching.
“Fast Break at Richmond High” takes a look at the basketball in the film and what went into making these scenes what they were. The filmmakers had to set a stage so that as people watched they would be able to enjoy various actions occurring in and during the game. If you’re interested in how these things happened, you will enjoy this featurette.
The only other older features here are twelve minutes worth of deleted scenes and a four minute music video for “Hope”. These features include a decent behind the scenes featurette called “Making the Cut”, the original theatrical trailer for Coach Carter, and a featurette for/about the screenwriter, “The Two Man Game.”
Bonus Features:
Bottom Line:
Coach Carter isn’t a horrible film. It just is a movie you’ve probably seen before with different actors and a different name. The acting here is pretty good and the quality of the Blu Ray is exceptional, so if you are already a fan of this movie, it is well worth the upgrade. If you’ve never seen Coach Carter before I recommend renting this from Blockbuster or Netflix. If you like it, I suggest you purchase this in Blu Ray since the quality is far superior to that in the standard DVD release.
Overall Rating:
Technorati Tags: Blu-ray, Movie, True Story, Coach Carter, Basketball, High School, Uplifting
--
Written by Admin - Visit Website
I'm the Blu Ray Authoritay admin and I rock!
No comments yet.