It feels familiar. There's really only so much you can do with a football movie. However, the deviations from the plot of a typical football movie makes the movie feel unique. For instance, the typical movie doesn't usually have a villain character. It's usually a rival team or some other conflict that affects the players personally, but in this movie the orphans are being taken advantage of by Frank Wynn who is using them for child labor. This creates an interesting dynamic where it feels like Rusty Russell isn't just trying to make them good football players but is genuinely fighting for the orphans well being. The orphans have problems like depression, the lack of parents, and being abused and taken advantage of so it feels like football is their salvation. The acting was pretty good. I was not entirely impressed with Luke Wilson as Russell but he did a good enough job to where the other actors could shine. Dear god, Wayne Knight is a good villain. They made me hate that man so much that I laughed when the orphans assaulted him. Also it was very difficult to fight the urge to rip off Lane Garrison's toupe-like hair. Great job.
Review of 12 Mighty Orphans
