Movie Review: Gridiron Gang

The Lowdown: Another uplifting sports tale based on "true events" that sees The Rock as juvenile probation officer Sean Porter to teach the delinquents responsibility, discipline, and community through the sport of Football.

The Review: Inspirational sports stories are one in a million. They all follow a tried and true success formula to at least make a successful movie. A few films take the formula one step farther really getting into the characters' heads, analyzing their relationships, and having a unique trait to make their movie stand out. Gridiron gang certainly has the unique trait (the focus on delinquent teens, lost causes locked into the institutional cycle and many times locked into the cycle of violence) to hook the audience but it offers little else to break through the glass ceiling to the short list of great sports films.

I'm not suggesting this is a bad film, because it's not, it's serviceable at the least and decent at best. It does offer a unique hook and utilizes that hook to the fullest, not only playing into the common themes acquainted with teenage delinquents but also providing commentary to our institution's especially the justice system. Many of these kid's would have never gotten the second chance they deserve if it wasn't for The Rock's character, Sean Porter. Not only does it critique our country's institutions but it also critiques our country's ability to treat the economically disadvantage and ultimately shows the desperation of the lower classes and how many of these kids are victims at birth.

As far as the kids in the film go, they're pretty prototypical characters, providing a short range of different ethinicities and cultures in order to diversify the film a bit and show that people of all color can be denied a second chance, and incorporate a theme of racial unity into the film. The kid's character's often have one unique trait and stick to it and essentially support the main character played by The Rock. The Rock gives one of his best performances (second to The Game Plan) which certainly isn't saying much. But keep in mind his performance wasn't only one of his best but rather good. The Rock is perfect for the part because he has a background in football and he seems to be truly involved and interested in the tough love character he portrays. He's able to portray a wider range of emotion in this film and able to touch upon deeper tones than his bland action films from before. While the acting is some of the Rock's best, the story and scripting is bland.

The direction of the film often jumps from being gritty to being too holywoodized. Some of it takes us straight to the heart of the film, being in the middle of a gang war and other times, it's overly dramatic and unreal with slow motion. Also the film fails to break out of the typical sports cliches of underdog team, caring coach, and sports sequences that bring absolutely nothing new to the table. It's already hard to bring drama to these films, but sometimes it felt like they weren't even trying.

The only thing that really kept from dogging this film is the documentary footage in the credits, when I saw the footage I noticed that the coach really did give inspirational speeches similar to how he did in the film, it really brings a truer feel and depletes the hollywoodized look, and actually makes me wish I just watched the documentary more than the film.

Overall: It's certainly not a great film, but it's serviceable and it's worth watching for those interested in seeing The Rock develop (like me) as an actor and those who can't get enough of their football films.

** 1/2