Coach Carter (2005)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Thomas Carter

Writers (WGA):

Mark Schwahn (written by) and
John Gatins (written by)

Release Date:

14 January 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Sport

Tagline:

It begins on the street. It ends here.

Plot:

Controversy surrounds high school basketball coach Ken Carter after he benches his entire team for their breaking their academic contract with him.

Plot Keywords:

Coach | Basketball | High School | Contract | High School Basketball

Awards:

3 wins & 14 nominations

Cast

Samuel L. Jackson	...	Coach Ken Carter
Rob Brown	...	Kenyon Stone
Robert Ri'chard	...	Damien Carter
Rick Gonzalez	...	Timo Cruz
Nana Gbewonyo	...	Junior Battle
Antwon Tanner	...	Worm
Channing Tatum	...	Jason Lyle
Ashanti	...	Kyra
Texas Battle	...	Maddux
Denise Dowse	...	Principal Garrison
Debbi Morgan	...	Tonya
Mel Winkler	...	Coach White
Vincent Laresca	...	Renny
Sidney Faison	...	Ty Crane
Octavia Spencer	...	Mrs. Battle

Also Known As:

All Day Long (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual content, language, teen partying and some drug material.

Runtime:

136 min

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #40973) | Iceland:12 | Norway:11 | Brazil:14 | Malaysia:U | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG | Finland:K-11 | Germany:6 | Ireland:12A | Netherlands:12 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:7 | New Zealand:M | UK:12 (video rating) (2005) | UK:12A (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California, USA

Company:

Coach Carter

Trivia:

The speech given by Timo Cruz in response to the question "What is your deepest fear?" is an excerpt from "A Return to Love" (1992) by Marianne Williamson. (Commonly misattributed to Nelson Mandela's 1994 Inaugural Address.)

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): During the state game, Carter tells Cruz to go in for Kenyon. But, when the game starts, both Kenyon and Cruz are playing in the game.

Quotes:

Coach Ken Carter: I end up taking a road trip to the suburbs where I find my drunk ass point guard on top of Daddy's little princess.
Worm: Actually, I was on the bottom, coach, she was on the top.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in The Comebacks (2007)

Soundtrack:

Get Low

Coach Carter Review.

Coach Carter is the story of a basketball coach who was persistent and had his priorities straight. The positive message the movie conveyed was that lives can be changed for the better through self discipline, hard work and the building of character. I was thinking to myself that the whole story was pretty believable, but then I looked into it and found it to be a true to life story so I guess it really is believable.

Samuel L. Jackson put in a convincing performance as the strict Coach Carter, as did the rest of the cast members. The movie, itself, was reminiscent of Lean On Me. It was the same basic story with the disciplinary figure helping the distraught kids through life.

I found it disappointing that the parent of the basketball team emphasized a mere game over something vastly more important, education. I rated this movie 7 of 10