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Radio (2003)

tomatometer

36

Average Rating: 5/10
Reviews Counted: 116
Fresh: 42 | Rotten: 74

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

25

Average Rating: 4.9/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 24

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, 1 hr. 49 min.

Drama

,

Mike Rich

Jan 27, 2004

$52.3M

Sony Pictures Entertainment

Cast

All Critics (124) | Top Critics (33) | Fresh (45) | Rotten (75) | DVD (23)

Based-on- a-true-story kitschfest.

October 28, 2003 Full Review Source: Village Voice | Comment
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 | Comment
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 Comment
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 Comment
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 | Comment
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 | Comment
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Lesson of kindness permeates inspiring true story.

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

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 | Comment
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 | Comment

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

February 25, 2004 Full Review | Comment
Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN)
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Radio

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

December 3, 2010
TheDudeLebowski65
Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski

Super Reviewer

This is quite a powerful film. Cuba Gooding Jr. turns in a brilliant performance as the mentally challenged loner James Robert Kennedy nicknamed "Radio" due to his vintage radio collection in which one is always in his hand playing music he loves, and gives a "score" to his lonely existence of pushing a grocery cart up

October 14, 2009
yona71

Super Reviewer

    1. James Robert "Radio" Kennedy: Where's my pie!?
    – Submitted by Patrick G (9 months ago)

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