Gridiron Gang (2006)

Information

Siskoid
Based on the 1993 documentary of the same name - and recreating several of its scenes - Gridiron Gang feels like fiction because it seems to proceed formulaically from an elevator pitch. That pitch is Dangerous Minds as a sports movie, and one might, probably correctly, surmise that the fictional elements injected into the story are to put it more in line with "the formula", and all the names have been changed so take from that what you will. Dwayne Johnson plays a probation officer at a juvenile detention facility who decides to use football to give his kids, mostly inner city youth involved in gang activity, something else to live for, exchanging gang fidelity with something more positive through team-building and self-esteem. Personally, I think it works. Most sports films are going to follow a similar route, but whether they succeed or not comes down to two things. First, you need strong characters to fuel engaging subplots, and the higher personal stakes of the setting accomplish that. Second, you need to know how to shoot sports action, and though I don't know football from much more than what I see in movies, I could understand the plays, and how they related to the characters and their arcs. Nothing groundbreaking - purists may well say the documentary made this redundant - but a well told story. 3 years 4 months ago
Thief
Completely predictable and mediocre.

Here's a blog entry I made about it. 11 years 3 months ago