Coach Carter (2005)
Average Rating: 6.1/10
Reviews Counted: 144
Fresh: 94 | Rotten: 50
Even though it's based on a true story, Coach Carter is pretty formulaic stuff, but it's effective and energetic, thanks to a strong central performance from Samuel L. Jackson.
Average Rating: 5.9/10
Critic Reviews: 37
Fresh: 21 | Rotten: 16
Even though it's based on a true story, Coach Carter is pretty formulaic stuff, but it's effective and energetic, thanks to a strong central performance from Samuel L. Jackson.
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Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 384,723
My Rating
Movie Info
The true-life story of a coach who tries to teach his players that there's more to life than basketball is brought to the screen in this sports drama. Ken Carter (Samuel L. Jackson) was once a star player on the Richmond High School basketball team in Richmond, CA, and years later, after establishing himself in publishing and marketing, he returns to the school and to the team as the new basketball coach. Carter quickly sees that his work is cut out for him -- the team is having an awful season,
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Cast
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Samuel L. Jackson
Ken Carter -
Robert Ri'chard
Damien Carter -
Rob Brown (VI)
Kenyon Stone -
Ashanti
Kyra -
Debbi Morgan
Tonya -
Rick Gonzalez
Timo Cruz -
Antwon Tanner
Worm -
Nana Gbewonyo
Junior Battle -
Channing Tatum
Jason Lyle -
Texas Battle
Maddox -
Denise Dowse
Principal Garrison -
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All Critics (150) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (103) | Rotten (52) | DVD (36)
This is supposed to be about setting high standards, yet it's full of fudged ultimatums; in the end I couldn't be sure whether its morality was complex or just confused.
Top CriticAlthough this is an inspirational genre pic that pushes all the requisite buttons throughout, you canâ(TM)t help but feel that rather than benching the team, director Thomas Carter should have benched a few of those ham-fisted sporting clichĂ (C)s instead.
Saved by bursts of energy and inventiveness.
Carter gives every sports-drama cliche a chance to play. No bad idea is benched.
Too vicious to speak to bleeding-heart liberals, too pro-academia to speak to No Child Left Behind advocates, and too preachy to speak to youths.
One of those highly effective conventional pictures that remind us that conventionality isn't always a bad thing.
With another in a long line of strong performances by Jackson, and some excellent basketball choreography, Coach Carter is fun, hopeful, occasionally silly and, what can I say, inspiring.
Engaging film with a terrific message.
Samuel Jackson returns to form behind a long string of disappointing performances as an ethically minded basketball coach at a tough inner city high school in Richmond, California.
While the film is over the top at times, Coach Carter has a big heart that doesn't shy away from challenging the American education system.
If you like your inspirational stories formulaic and predictable, Coach Carter is the ticket.
How terribly ironic that the story of an educator who dared to challenge the mental capacity of his students can produce a film that so shamelessly spoon-feeds its audience.
Extras on the disc include a documentary on the real Ken Carter, a 'making of' featurette, plus six deleted scenes.
By making the choices the filmmakers did here, we get a movie that may not be profound, but it's both highly entertaining for its sports and fascinating for its social issues.
It's Jackson's dominating yet enlightened performance that infuses the film with much of its vigor. (Blu-ray Edition)
...the movie is more concerned with the characters than with the sport. So it's a movie for anyone to enjoy.
A worthy addition to familiar triumph-of-the-underdog stories.
There's a kick butt performance from Samuel Jackson, the master of the take-no-prisoners motormouth school of acting, even if it is only a high school gym.
There's a kick butt performance from Samuel Jackson, the master of the take-no-prisoners motormouth school of acting, even if it is only a high school gym.
Far from groundbreaking--in fact, it doesn't have an original bone in its body--but as inspirational sports movies go, it's not half-bad.
Audience Reviews for Coach Carter
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Jason Lyle: You said we're a team. One person struggles, we all struggle. One person triumphs, we all triumph.
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- Timo Cruz: Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
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- Ken Carter: Basketball is a privilege ma'am. If you wanna play basketball on this team, these are the simple rules you have to follow if you want to want to enjoy these privileges. If you decide to follow these simple rules, I need you and the boys to sign these contracts.
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- Timo Cruz: Teachers ain't supposed to touch students.
- Ken Carter: I'm not a teacher. I'm the new basketball coach.
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- Timo Cruz: Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
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"It begins on the street. It ends here."
Coach Carter is a good sports movie, even though we've seen these type of stories played out in the same way countless times before and after this film. It still excels as we see all the predictable moments, all the "I'm not playing for this guy," all the "Coach I want back on the team," and all the adversity the players have to go through. The movie is what it's been labeled. It's inspirational and it's heartfelt. While, a lot of movies fail in trying to achieve this by working too hard, this one works too hard at trying to achieve that, but still manages to.
Ken Carter takes a high school basketball coaching job at a ghetto, "bad" school. The kids are undisciplined and don't care about school. They also are bad at basketball, having only won four games the previous year. Carter is there to change it all. He tells them the losing stops now. He tells them to either sign a contract stating you'll keep a 2.3 gpa, attend all your class, sit in the first row of all your classes, and wear a jacket and tie on game day. He makes them run endlessly to get them in shape and soon he has his team on track with an undefeated record into the middle of the year. But all that adversity is going to hit.
Samuel L. Jackson thrives in the role of Coach Carter. He looks the part and he sounds the part. I wouldn't call it his best performance or anything like that, but he is very good. The acting from everyone else, ummm.... I'll go with so, so. But the movie is called Coach Carter and thusly the fate of the film really rested on Jackson's shoulders and he was able to hold it up.
The movie has problems, most of them coming with the genre. Predictability, cliches, and heart tugging among them. Still, this is a better than average addition to the "Bad News Bears" type of story. Coach takes misfit riddled team and turns them into winners. Is it a masterpiece? Hell no. Is it bad? Hell no. I've seen it many times now and I still enjoy it. It's definitely a worthwhile film to watch if you haven't seen it yet. Try FX, it seems to be on that channel every other day.