By CHRIS PUNTO & NATALIE SACKET
Columnists
First and foremost, we want to give a special thank you to the Rialto Theater for letting us come into the movies for free so we can review them. It’s one of the few things that gets us through the week. Anyway, as if we have not seen enough sports movies over the last few weeks, we decided to watch
“When The Game Stands Tall” (2014).
Chris’ Review-
3.5 footballs out of 5
So before anyone starts going off about “Well, of course you like this film. You’re a guy. All guys love sports movies,” I want to say that football is not my forte. I would much rather watch a basketball movie. This movie, however, did not let me down as much as I anticipated. Being a sports movie about football, this film has a lot to compete with. Classics like “We Are Marshall” and “Facing The Giants” have given us a good standard for movies like this to live up to, and quite honestly, it did not do badly.
I won’t bore you with what the movie is about. You can all watch the trailer. You don’t need me for that. What I will say is the cast did a decent job. There were not any huge names that I’m too familiar with, but I felt like everyone stood their ground. The lead role, played by Jim Caviezel, kind of reminds me of a very serious Steve Carell. Scenes that lacked the emotional intensity a football coach should show were made up for by all the emotions the entire storyline itself captures.
One thing that always annoys me when I watch a movie is all the product placement. This movie is terrible about that. Brands like Nike and Dick’s Sporting Goods are impossible to miss. I understand that movies are now becoming a medium for advertisement, but could I not get $50 shirts shoved in my face in every other scene, please? This movie also likes Oregon, so if you are a UCLA fan, steer clear of this one.
What I did not like about this movie is how many pseudo-climaxes it has. You feel like every football game should be the end of the film, but it just keeps going. I’m not a fan of the pinnacle of the movie being no more exciting than the middle. It makes for a slow let-down from the high point you’ve been on for two hours now.
Bottom line, if you’re a manly man and football is life, go spend that $5 that you aren’t getting from financial aid. Girls, go watch this movie with your boyfriend/guy-you-are-kinda-talking-to-but-he-doesn’t-want-to-commit. It will make him happy, and you probably owe him from watching “If I Stay” last week. If you’ve never been a fan of sports movies, then you probably don’t need me to tell you not to go.
Natalie’s Review-
1 football out of 5
“When the Game Stands Tall” was certainly not standing tall in movie quality this week.
There’s a simple formula for most football movies: team goes through a struggle, loses some games, improves, wins the big game! And we all cheer. Except for me. I fell asleep halfway through the movie out of sheer boredom. I suppose I shouldn’t be so harsh on the sports genre; however, this film had no redeeming factors for me.
“When the Game Stands Tall” is based on an interesting true story. A high school with a winning streak of 151 games develops quite a fan base. That is, until they lose a game. The team then has to find a way to rebuild the program. Mixed in along the way are many subplots, striving to capture the audience’s attention. While this is an inspiring story, the movie itself failed to add any inspiration of its own.
The film lagged during numerous scenes. The acting was stale and lacked conviction. There were no shocking moments, no surprises, nothing that grabbed me. While I did enjoy the storyline, I kept wanting more, and the film failed to deliver.
There were many contradictions in this film. While there was a theme stressing that there is more to life than football, many times the players would state that anything they did in life would never compare to these moments. There was a whole menagerie of other clichés as well. “It’s how much heart you have.” “There’s no ‘I’ in team.” “You can do it if you set your mind to it.” While these are all true and positive statements, mushed together it was just a sappy mess lacking any backbone of plot.
Author’s note: I apologize for my last three very negative reviews. The film industry has failed me this month.