Gridiron Gang (2006)
Director: Phil Joanou
Synopsis
The story
of a group of delinquent teenagers given a second chance through American football.
Movie review
From Time Out London
There’s an old rumour that Ronald Reagan used to study newsreel footage of Adolf Hitler in order to inject his own speeches with the Führer’s aggressive and hypnotic style. Whether true or not, it’s a method Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson looks also to have adopted in order to flesh out his role as the firm-but-fair American football coach whose everyday banter sounds like he’s block-quoting from ‘Triumph of the Will’. This familiar sports-prison hybrid sees a surly band of teenage reprobates taken under the wing of their bleeding-heart trainer who firmly believes that the best way to rehabilitate these boys is with plenty of full-contact team sports. While the nub of the story focuses on the Rock’s volatile relationship with irksome star quarterback Willie Weathers (Jade Yorker), the film also draws naive parallels between the kids’ violent on-field antics and the tit-for-tat LA gang slayings that are getting them locked up in the first place. The point-and-click direction from Phil Joanou (best known for his U2 concert doc, ‘Rattle and Hum’) does little to supply any substance to a yarn that was probably on its last legs to begin with, and while it remains thoroughly inoffensive and well-meaning stuff, it’s so jam-packed with genre clichés and recycled ideas (think ‘Coach Carter’, ‘Bad News Bears’, ‘Wildcats’) that there’s nothing you won’t have seen, thought or heard before.Author: David Jenkins
Time Out London
Cast & crew
Director: Phil Joanou
Producer: Neal H Moritz, Lee Stanley
Cast: The Rock, Xzibit, Kevin Dunn, Leon Rippy, Jade Yorker, Trevor O'Brien, Brandon Mychal Smith, MO, David Thomas, Setu Taase, James Earl III, Jarnal Mixon full cast
Genre(s): Drama
Rated: 12A
Duration: 125 mins
UK Release: Feb 2 2007
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
The essential guide to the London Film Festival
Get the inside track on the all the films and events you'll want to catch at the Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival
Terence Davies: interview
Wally Hammond talks to visionary British director Terence Davies about his deeply personal and long-awaited new documentary ‘Of Time and the City’
A Bond a day: No. 10 'The Spy Who Loved Me'
Time Out revisits the 21 Bond movies day by day to celebrate the release of 'Quantum of Solace'
W.
Read our early review of Oliver Stone's George W Bush biopic, 'W.', playing at this year's London Film Festival
Ten friendly ghost movies
To celebrate the release of 'Ghost Town' in which Ricky Gervais plays a New York dentist who can see dead people, Time Out counts down ten great friendly ghost movies.







What do you think?
Post your review now