It's Not Whether You Win Or Lose..."When The Game Stands Tall"

When The Game Stands Tall (2014)

PG

Starring Jim Caviezel, Michael Chiklis, Laura Dern, Matthew Daddario,

Directed by Thomas Carter

The Story:

The De La Salle Spartans went from an obscure high school football team to a juggernaut of mythical proportions as they racked up an insanely gaudy 151-0 record under coach Bob Ladouceur (Caviezel). With assistant coach Eidson (Chiklis) helping on defense, the Spartans have scared off the rival schools and so they line up out of state powerhouses to square off against. However, when an off-season tragedy befalls the graduating class, and the coach has a helath setback, next year's class doesn't quite step up to the plate and the Spartans fall on opening day.

The Streak dies, however from the ashes, Ladouceur becomes a better coach, but more importantly, a better father to his son (Daddario).

Naturally, inspired by a true story should be an obvious understatement.

:)

Of course, once the team starts winning again, people begin clamoring for The NEW Streak, which causes the coach to bristle. It's not about the streak, it's about the team.

Thankfully, the players he coaches learn the same lesson along the way.

While good, and even inspiring, the narrative of the story is a little disjointed at times.

The senseless tragedy from the first act is built up and then forgotten until the finale.

It really had no bearing on the new season, except for the passing of the torch to the Junior class who would fumble the ball, figuratively, and while tragic, kind of takes awhile for the movie to get any real momentum.

Again, it was a good movie, but the slow beginning could have used some kind of tweaking.

So enjoy, because it's a long way to go until football season.

Final Grade: Solid B

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: I could see watching this one again down the road, but no huge hurry, lots of other stuff to see!

Ready For The Weekend? Better Have An "Escape Plan" From Work

Escape Plan (2013)
Rated R for Violence and language

Starring Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Caviezel

Directed by Mikael Hafstrom

The Story:

Ray Breslin(Stallone) lives to break out of prisons.  He is hired to analyze, test and escape from the best prisons on the planet.  When the Feds come looking to have Breslin check out the greatest prison ever developed, he agrees, but soon finds himself trapped in a prison with all of his fail-safes gone.  He meets another inmate (Schwarzenegger) and the two begin to slowly hatch Breslin's escape plan.  But with the Warden's (Caviezel) ever present guards and cameras, it looks like this could be the end of Breslin's storied career of being able to escape.

This was a fun little movie!

The previews didn't lie, and I had a great time watching the film.

I don't think any kids growing up in the 80s would think that we would still see Arnold and Sly making movies 30 years later, but I'm glad they are.

And for the most part, lately, their movies are turning out to be as good, or better, than much of the stuff they were in from the 80s on through to today.

That's not bad at all.

Caviezel's warden seems to be missing a few pieces of his character, probably on the cutting room floor.  He's an odd duck, to say the least, but he is disturbingly effective in his role.

Also nice to see Sam Neill pop up as the prison doctor.  Haven't seen him in ages.

Give it a shot if you haven't yet seen it.

Final Grade: Solid B

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: I quite enjoyed this one, and would have no problem owning or watching it again.