Remember the Titans (2000) review

(7/10)

Though I'm not the biggest fan of football movies, this one was pretty well done. It was inspirational, true to the time, and even.

PLOT:In 1971 Virginia, three high schools are forced to integrate with one being black and the other two being white. The football coaches of two of the schools, long-time favorite, Coach Yoats (Will Patton), and new-comer, Coach Boone (Denzel Washington) agree to try and combine their teams and integrate their players to form the almighty Titans. It's not easy, however; the players constantly fight each other and the town's racist mind's often interfere. However, they can pull through with a loving heart and a strong mind. It's a good plot executed fairly well.



ACTING:The performances in here were great. Denzel Washington played the best of them as the wise and forceful Coach Boone. Will Patton also played a pretty decent part as Coach Yoates. In some places, I could see where he could've done better, but he did well overall. The other shiners were Ryan Hurst as Gerry Bertier, Craig Kirkwood as The Rev, Kip Pardue as Sunshine, Donald Faison as Petey, Wood Harris as Julius, and Hayden Pentierre as Sheryl Yoast.

SCORE:The score was mainly songs from the time period mixed withe some inspirational themes. It wasn't too bad.



OTHER CONTENT:I thought this was just going to be another cheesy inspirational movie, but I was proved wrong. This was a little cheesy and inspirational, but it did everything right. It balanced the humor and drama with the performances evenly to tell the story true to the time period. I appreciate how accurate (from what I've studied) they depicted the time. Though this still was cheesy in places as well as predictable, it played its cards right and remained fairly even throughout.

OVERALL,a good movie with a good plot, great acting, alright score, even tonal balances, accuracy to the time, and lots of inspiration, but it was still a bit cheesy and predictable.

The Game Plan (2007) review

(3/10)

I saw this once on my birthday when I was younger. Now, I think its pretty much shallow and predictable, running on the same family movie formula as used several times before.

PLOT:Joe Kingman (Dwayne Johnson) is the famous quarterback for the Boston Rebels. He's always been the King, who never says no, and is full of himself in every aspect. However, the King's bubble is bursted when he finds out he has an 8-year-old daughter named Peyton (Madison Pettis), who has unexpectedly arrived at his doorstep to stay with him. Things immediately turn upside down from then. Things start to be more about Peyton than about Joe, and he doesn't really like it much. He clearly isn't used to being a father, considering he leaves her at a nightclub, sets up game plans of where she can go, and even disregards every word she says. However, it's possible that this young girl can warm this tough quarterback's warm heart. It's a basic plot executed in a formulaic way.



ACTING:The acting in here is ok. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson''s part as the tough quarterback father, Joe Kingman, was mainly pretty shallow, due to his script. He was just simply ok, but he was the best performance in the movie. Madison Pettis played a pretty basic part as the young daughter Peyton. She was mainly just a regular child actor, but she did have her moments where she said a snappy line or stirred an emotional response. There aren't really any other shiners, not even Kyra Sedgewick as his cold agent, Stella. She actually did pretty awful.

SCORE:The score was mainly made up of either some cheesy inspirational schlock or some good classic rock soundtrack. I spotted songs in here from the likes of Elvis, E.L.O., and even Marvin Gaye. The soundtrack itself wasn't bad, but the score was just cheese.



OTHER CONTENT:This is just another family movie Disney made to make money, endorsing football and their new star, at the time, Madison Pettis, who played on the Disney Channel show, "Cory in the House". This movie is cheesy, shallow, and predictable for the most part. However, this movie did have some positive aspects. It did teach a good lesson with some heart-warming moments and some clever moments, but it's overall pretty formulaic. Also, the second half of the movie is way better than the first. It was less shallow and a little more cleanly edited.

OVERALL,a bad movie with a formulaic plot, ok acting, cheesy score and a good soundtrack, cheesiness, shallow execution, and predictability, but it did have its moments with its simple lesson, and it had a better, well-edited second half.