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Radio Play Trailer

Radio (2003)

tomatometer

36

Average Rating: 5/10
Reviews Counted: 117
Fresh: 42 | Rotten: 75

The story is heavy on syrupy uplift and turns Radio into a saint/cuddly pet.

26

Average Rating: 4.9/10
Critic Reviews: 34
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 25

The story is heavy on syrupy uplift and turns Radio into a saint/cuddly pet.

audience

83

liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 153,371

My Rating

Movie Info

Hollywood filmmaker Michael Tollin directs the sports drama Radio, based on a true story and adapted for the screen by Mike Rich (The Rookie). Set in a small South Carolina town during the '60s, the film stars Ed Harris as Harold Jones, a high school football coach who barely has time to spend with his daughter, Mary Helen (Sarah Drew), or his wife, Linda (Debra Winger). When Coach Jones meets the mentally challenged student who goes by the name of Radio (Cuba Gooding Jr.), he allows him to help

PG,

Drama

,

Mike Rich

Jan 27, 2004

$52.3M

Sony Pictures Entertainment - Official Site External Icon

Cast

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All Critics (125) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (45) | Rotten (76) | DVD (23)

Based-on- a-true-story kitschfest.

October 28, 2003 Full Review Source: Village Voice
Village Voice
Top Critic IconTop Critic

[Y]et another movie that takes a mentally challenged character and turns him into this kind of deity, this saint-like mascot who everybody else learns life lessons from.

October 27, 2003 Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Gooding once again embarrasses himself in public with a performance that knows no shame, a habit he's getting frighteningly at ease with these days.

October 24, 2003
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A train wreck of a film lying inert where the tracks of the Feel Good Line cross the Path of Good Intentions.

October 24, 2003
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Though probably well-intentioned, Radio comes off as manipulative of its audience and exploitative of the mentally challenged.

October 24, 2003 Full Review Source: USA Today
USA Today
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Rarely have good intentions been wrapped in such a sticky package.

October 24, 2003 Full Review Source: Toronto Star
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Lesson of kindness permeates inspiring true story.

December 28, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment (1)
Common Sense Media

Despite the fine efforts of Harris and Gooding, Jr., Radio nearly drowns in James Horner's overbearingly sentimental music.

September 6, 2007
Christianity Today

Awful from start to finish.

January 11, 2006 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comments (2)
Oz
eFilmCritic.com

The screenwriter seems obsessed with introducing dramatic conflict, which feels both strained and convenient.

April 18, 2004 Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall
Shadows on the Wall

Tune in for another formulaic feel-good story that will warm your heart and chill your mind.

February 27, 2004 Full Review Source: Boulder Weekly

Extras ... include a look at the making of the movie, and at the real Coach Herman Jones and Radio ...

February 25, 2004 Full Review
Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN)

Audience Reviews for Radio

How they took a story that is inherently so moving and turned it into a jumbled, lifeless mess is beyond my comprehension. It's as if they let the real life Radio write and direct the film.
March 8, 2011
axadntpron
Reid Volk

Super Reviewer

Radio is yet another in a long list of feel good movies. But I believe that this is the best feel good movie since October Sky. Cuba Gooding Jr. and Ed Harris deliver strong performances here. Cuba Gooding Jr. portrays Robert "Radio" Kennedy a young man with mental problems, and Ed Harris portrays Coach Jones, the coach of the local High School who befriends Radio after Jones's team terrorizes him. Radio At first doesn't open up, but after a while he warms up to Coach Jones. However this friendship is hard because of the obvious mental issues that Radio has. Radio is said to be a distraction by many of the parents, and teachers. However Coach Jones ignores this, and defies what some parents say, and he builds a strong friendship with Radio. The film has all the usual feel good traits of a feel good movie, and is the type of film that you can watch with the entire family and enjoy it for what it is. A very moving stoiry, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Ed Harris performances are believable enough and the rest of the cast do a good job acting alongside Harris and Gooding Jr. Radio mixes elements of a feel good film with sports drama, and theres nothing here that you can't hate. The film is not perfect of course, I mean it's a film we've seen a hundred times before, but Radio is still a good enough film to provide you with two hours of good family entertainment. Radio is a powerful film about what it truly means to be human, and how some situations can bring out the best out of people. A well done film that is a must see, not the best ever made, but definitely a film to watch and make you feel good.
December 3, 2010
TheDudeLebowski65
Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski

Super Reviewer

    1. James Robert "Radio" Kennedy: Where's my pie!?
    – Submitted by Patrick G (2 years ago)

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