Coach Carter

Ken Carter was an American high-school basketball coach who believed academic excellence was just as important as sporting prowess, and at the start of the 1999 season made his entire team sign contracts promising to maintain certain grades in class. When the players failed, Carter made national news by cancelling games and locking the gym. This is the MTV version of his story; all fast cuts and thumping rap as the initially outraged team eventually rise to Carter’s challenge.
Samuel L Jackson is his usual commanding self in the lead role, although his seemingly endless array of shouty speeches about attitude and commitment begin to grate after two hours. Equally, although this is an inspirational genre pic that pushes all the requisite buttons throughout, you can’t help but feel that rather than benching the team, director Thomas Carter should have benched a few of those ham-fisted sporting clichés instead.