Starring: Samuel L. Jackson
Last year we watched the wonderful film Remember the Titans, which was about a 1970s American football team who had to play racially integrated for the first time. It was an amazing film, and so we started looking for some similar, feel-good, American sportsy films. We found Coach Carter, which is about a basketball teacher who, when he accepts a new job at a different school, goes to some rather extreme lengths to create an educated and disciplined basketball team. Coach Carter learnt that only 50% of the children studying at Richmond High graduated (and that of that percentage only a very small minority made it into university), while the rest of the schoolchildren mostly ended up in jail. During his time at the school, Carter not only ensured that the teenagers became professional basketball players, but that they would maintain a steady grade point average and attend all their classes. All of the players graduated from Richmond and many even went to university, defying the statistics.
I thought this was a wonderful film, particularly due to Samuel L. Jackson’s impeccable acting. However, I found it to be a bit more cheesy than Remember the Titans – I had intended to watch a film purely about basketball, and less about who was dating who, or who was having more family problems. Overall, though, I would rate it a 3.5 out of 5.
