Coach Carter Blu-Ray Review
Posted by Cody Dalton on 12.30.2008
One of the many sports movies ever made, but did making it on Blu-Ray help it stand out from the rest?
Director: Thomas Carter Writer: Mark Schwahn & John Gatins Cinematographer: Sharone Meir Music Composer: Keith Burgomaster
Cast:
Samuel L. Jackson … Coach Ken Ray Carter
Ashanti … Kyra
Rob Brown … Kenyon Stone
Robert Ri’chard … Damien Carter
Rick Gonzalez … Timo Cruz
Nana Gbewonyo … Junior Battle
Antwon Tanner … Jaron ‘Worm’ Willis
Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual content, language, teen partying and some drug material.
The Movie
“Coach Carter” tells the true real-life story of Ken Ray Carter, a former athlete at Richmond High School in California. Carter (Samuel Jackson) is asked to become the head coach of his alma mater’s basketball team. After accepting, Carter begins to try and change of team of disobedient players with poor attitudes. Though he has a tough task ahead of him, Carter begins to change the player’s attitudes by initiating a mandate on their grade point averages. They must hold a minimum of a 2.3 and each sign contracts saying they will uphold this rule.
Not all players agree with the decision. In fact, Timo Cruz (Rick Gonzalez) leaves practice after having a fight with Carter. Two other players walk out with Cruz, leaving the team with none of their leading scorers. However, Carter’s son Damien (Robert Ri’chard) leaves St. Francis private school to join up with his father and play for him. However, Damien had to maintain a 3.7 GPA in order to join the squad. With little hesitance, he agrees.
While most of the movie follows the Richmond basketball squad, it focuses in on the personal lives of the players and the problems that they are dealing with. One of the players, Kenyon Stone (Rob Brown), is in a constant fight within himself to either continue his school and being a member of the basketball team or to quit and aid his pregnant girlfriend Kyra, played by singer/actress Ashanti. In the meanwhile, Cruz approaches Coach Carter to make a return to the team. However, in order to do so, Carter tells Cruz that he must complete. He is unable to, but an assist by his teammates helps Cruz complete his task and rejoin the team.
Carter’s next task is the bad attitudes on the court of his players. In practice, Carter addresses the issue by poking fun at his players. That problem seems to be fixed, only followed by another problem. The team sneaks out of their hotel to a girl’s house after a tournament win. However, Coach Carter discovers the missing boys and discovers their location.
The most controversial of Carter’s decisions is locking the gymnasium after discovering his player’s bad grades. He orders them to report to the library for study hall. Practice is cancelled and games are forfeited. Regardless of many players making the grades, all the players are punished because Coach Carter wants them to realize the mistakes of some players cost them team as a whole. Cruz quits the team again and ends up in gang related violence in which a friend is killed. He eventually ends up at Coach Carter’s house crying and asking to rejoin the team for the second time.
The parents of the players and school board members protest the lockout. Eventually, the lockout ends and Carter threatens to quit his job. However, the players bring their schoolwork to the gym and continue their work on their grades. As they continue their uprising academically, Kenyon is granted a scholarship to Sacramento State University, realizing a dream to continue his education.
As the season continues, Richmond High is playing extremely well. So well, in the fact that they make the playoffs. However, the top-ranked team in the state, St. Francis, defeats the team and their season ends. However, Carter gives his players one final speech that reminds them of all they have done in their season.
THE VIDEO & AUDIO
Coach Carter is presented in presented in 2.4:1 1080p. All of the action scenes on the court looked extremely sharp and crisp. Great look for the sports fan. The audio is Dolby TrueHD 5.1. Comes in English, French, & Spanish. Also comes with Subtitles in English, French, Spanish, & Portuguese.
THE EXTRAS
Coach Carter: The Man Behind The Movie: This extra looks at the actual Ken Ray Carter and his team. The video documents the real story of how everything came to be and the decisions that made headlines in the state of California and across the nation.
Fast Break At Richmond High: This feature profiles the work and exercise put into choreographing the games, as well as the selection of real life athletes to help fill the roles in many of the movies game action scenes.
Deleted Scenes: Features 6 Scenes that were not included in the movies final theatrical release.
Hope – Music Video By Twista Featuring Faith Evans
Writing Coach Carter: The Two Man Game: Shows the accounts of screenwriters Mark Schwahn and John Gatins, as they show their quest to put the movie together piece by piece and their take on how things turned out.
Coach Carter: Making the Cut: A look at the Coach Carter project overall and how things came together to make the movie what it is.
Theatrical Trailer of the Movie
The Film: 8.0/10.0
The Video: 10.0/10.0
The Audio: 10.0/10.0
The Extras: 9.5/10.0
The 411: Coach Carter very well might not stick out as the greatest sports movie of all time. However, by placing it in Blu-Ray, it gives the movie that extra special edge that brings out the many action scenes and sounds from each game that Richmond High plays. I don’t think personally that Coach Carter measures up to many of the overall great sports movies. If I just look at this as a singular movie, having it in Blu-Ray makes the movie that much better. Overall, it’s a great choice for the sports fan in your life.
