Rebound (2005) User Reviews

Not the best family film, but far from the worst

[MovieDawg2 · 6/10 · 6 July 2005]

Too many critics seem to be expecting more from "Rebound" than it tries to offer. This movie is what it is - a simplistic, fun family movie aimed at kids - nothing more, nothing less. The filmmakers weren't trying to create "Casablanca 2" here. As a family movie, it succeeds at producing enough laughs to entertain the kids and keep adults from getting too bored.

There are certainly elements in the movie that could've been better. It's WAY too formulaic and predictable, the scores in the games before Coach Roy arrive are totally unrealistic, and quite frankly, there are several actors who would've been funnier in the role than Lawrence. But the kids are very well cast, and do a real good job with the material they're given. There are many genuinely funny bits, and Megan Mullally is an absolute hoot in her role, which was far too small.

So if you're looking for the next great cinematic classic, keep looking. But if you want a fun family movie that's suitable for the kids, check out "Rebound."

Okay But Could Have Been Better

[Computer_Stud · 5/10 · 15 July 2005]

I always felt that the problem with Martin Lawrence movies is that the scripts always limit all of the raunchiness and outrageous humor that makes Martin Lawrence funny. Bad Boys I is probably the only movie that parallels the comic potential that you can find in Lawrence's stand-up acts. Otherwise, the moviegoer will only see a fraction of the comedian's talent.

I walked into the theater expecting to see another terrible Martin Lawrence movie, but I was surprised that this film was somewhat enjoyable. Being rated PG, Rebound checks Lawrence's ability to offend through his usual graphic language, but Lawrence actually shows that he can be funny and gentle at the same time, relying on easygoing charm and witty dialogue to appease the audience. One of the prime examples of this is a scene where he is teaching a kid not to be a ball hog on the court. He makes his point in a way that is charming, smart, and funny. Another scene is where Lawrence plays a secondary character, a street preacher who gives the middle schoolers a pep talk before a big game. A similar scene was used in Blue Streak, but unlike in that movie, this scene works, mainly because the audience gets to see an unsuspecting, straight-laced Martin react to a more sketchier version of himself. It's a clever device that is guaranteed to generate some laughter. So why did I give this movie only five stars? The problem falls mainly with Rebound's poorly-written script.

Martin Lawrence stars as a once great college basketball coach, whose short temper causes him to be kicked out of the league. In order to redeem himself, he takes up a coaching job at his old middle school to prove to the NCBA that he is not only as good of a coach as he was in his prime but a charitable one as well. The school's team is a group of misfits that can never seem to score a single basket in any of the games they play. Will Lawrence bring the team to victory? While the premise is promising, the delivery is weak and lacking substance. Lawrence is supposed to be a Bobby Knight-type coach and seeing him throw tantrums in the Martin Lawrence style we all know and love would have been hilarious to see. But the problem is that we rarely see Lawrence carry this angry persona. In fact, his so-called emotional outburst appears accidental when he kicks a ball at the opposing team's mascot. Is this reason enough to expel him from the league? Aside from this err in the plot, the rest of the movie feels a bit rushed. Every time a scene begins to ascend in humor, it abruptly ends and goes onto another scene. As a result, Lawrence wins the trust of the middle schoolers too quickly, he brings the underdogs onto a winning streak too quickly, he decides that he loves coaching middle school too quickly. Plus, Lawrence wins the heart of one of the kid's mother ALL TOO QUICKLY! Better pacing along with a couple of twists would have made for a better film.

Aside from Lawrence's strong performance, Rebound's young cast delivers as well. The chemistry between Lawrence and the kids is great, and their characters are well-developed. However, the rest of the adult cast feels wasted. Patrick Warburton puts in a lot of energy in his performance but he doesn't have anyone to play off. Megan Mullally is hilarious as the sarcastic school principal but she seems to vanish halfway through the film. I felt that Rebound would have benefited from more interplay between her and Lawrence. Seeing these two wacky comedians bump heads would have been fun to see. Breckin Meyer does a decent job as Coach Roy's shrewd agent, but you get the feeling that he probably has something better to do. Wendy Raquel Robinson is a suitable love interest for Martin and does her job well. But as stated before, her character falls for Martin a little too fast to be truly believable. Sadly, Horatio Sanz is given very little to do.

Overall, this movie was decent and provided some great insights on learning to work with others cooperatively despite personal differences. Everything else feels a bit forced and redundant. Martin Lawrence proves that he has a superb screen presence and broad comic appeal but it will take more than this poorly written piece for him to rebound and get back into the game.

Decent, Predictable Kid's Movie

[hoosierrevue · 4/10 · 6 July 2005]

The filmmakers in Rebound diligently stick to the prescribed "kids sports movie" formula, and desperately hope that Martin Lawrence provides a flicker of spunk.

I can't give Rebound more than two stars, not because it was necessarily bad, but because it was painfully predictable. It dares not stray from the tired but true progression of, "a small team of misfits is matched up with a reluctant savior, who inevitably leads the team to victory only after learning a valuable lesson." In this case, the reluctant coach, Roy McCormick, is played by Martin Lawrence, who attempts to single-handedly provide some unique quality to this film in order to distinguish it from all other kid movies. He fails.

Roy McCormick is a hotshot college basketball coach with an outrageous temper and passion for endorsement deals. The audience is repeatedly shown how out of touch with basketball Coach Roy has become by showing many examples of his advertisements, his flashy car, his expensive suits, etc. We are even treated to the routine clips from "The Best Damn Sports Show," where Tom Arnold proclaims that Coach Roy is losing it. After we have firmly established that Roy is in fact out of touch already, we get the inevitable temper tantrum that results in his expulsion from the league. Coach Roy then reluctantly agrees to coach a struggling junior high basketball team. This brilliant plan will supposedly help him rebuild his reputation, thereby allowing him to gain readmittance to the league. Because apparently, the best way to gain credibility as a basketball coach is to instruct reject junior high kids, at which point one will just be rolling in offers from the NBA.

We watch as Coach Roy methodically teaches the kids how to play basketball, one skill at a time, through a series of over-dramatic techniques. He brings in a weird hoodlum preacher who is not funny at all and looks suspiciously like Martin Lawrence dressed up as a hoodlum preacher. He scours the student body for a very tall kid who is also clumsy in a humorous way. He also recruits a large girl to the team, as she is Susie-Likes-to-Fight, and Roy thinks that if things get rough, he can always channel his inner John Chaney and send her out to pummel someone. The audience laughs because she's a girl! Haha, get it—she's a girl! And all the while, goofy and upbeat music plays helpfully in the background, reminding us that this is a stupid kid's movie.

There's the romance factor of course, with Coach Roy trying to get a date with one kid's mom. There's also the slapstick assistant coach (played by SNL cast member Horatio Sanz), who bumbles around hoping to provide supplemental humor when basketballs slip out of his grasp and fly in all directions; there's the overzealous opposing coach who thinks junior high school basketball is as important as college or NBA--but then again, can you really blame the guy? After all, the film has already established that coaching junior high school basketball is a direct path to the big leagues.

Needless to say, this movie is tiresomely predictable, but not necessarily bad. I know that kids will like it, so I would recommend it as a very family-friendly movie. It definitely has the "cute factor," in that sense, but those of us who are not 13 may not see the same value in Rebound.

So sad...nobody was laughing

[MrTacchi · 3/10 · 30 June 2005]

It's a shame when a movie tries so hard to be funny but no one laughs at it. I went seeing this with expecting for a couple hours of light, predictable and forgettable fun, but instead of that I got a pointless sitcom that fails miserably at being funny or dramatic.

The main problem with Rebound is that it never comes together; it's that kind of movie that is sorta made by two directors with opposite purposes: light-hearted humor and deep thoughtful drama. So, the whole film is like a struggle between these two visions, and none comes to win. Unfortunately, viewers become the great losers with all this mess.

Megan Mullaly makes a good job of her role, though Martin Lawrence looks uncomfortable and overwhelmed by his. I have read some good reviews about Lawrence's performance, but I have to disagree on that one. I think that this is one of his worst performances, totally unfunny or whatsoever.

For those who defend this film saying that is a kid's movie, I should defend children's rights to have intelligent options, like Pixar and Dreamworks had been doing lately. There is no excuse for showing dull and naive movies only because "it's for the children"...

Tricked by the Fox, once again

[diand_ · 2/10 · 25 August 2005]

College basketball coach Roy McCormick is almost banned for life due to his aggressive behavior, but as his agent finds a clause in the rules that he must have another chance first, he ends up training a middle school team, the Mount Vernon Junior High School Smelters. As those movies go, after a few confrontations everyone works together to become champions. Add a love interest for the coach and some diversity in the characters of the team.

One of the more funny scenes involves shy Wes and over-assertive Big Mac (this time not meant as a product placement I hope) ending up in a romance. Another thing well done is the way the coach instructs his team. Like in Coach Carter he takes time to learn the middle school team about passing, communication and rebounding. Martin Lawrence tries hard but lacks the comedy skills Eddie Murphy has. He even plays more than one character like Murphy did in Coming to America.

Most Hollywood movies only get a bad treatment just because they are made in Hollywood. But Rebound gives those Hollywood-haters exactly the ammo they wish, as it is the kind of formulaic movie that has not a shred of intelligent writing, storytelling, directing or acting to be fond of (and being a kid's movie is not an excuse for that). The story has been told so many times that Rebound is boring to the extreme, as there is total predictability.

VERY Bad

[fear_da_fro_bro · 1/10 · 3 July 2005]

I can't believe I paid full price to see this trash. With Rebound, the newest sports and children comedy, audiences have every right to be upset. The recipe not only hasn't been changed, it's been left in the oven far too long.

That's the big flaw in Rebound -- you know it, all of it. The plot is an updated, lifeless version of Hoosiers, and it proceeds like a "choose your own adventure" story where the answers are given for you. As for the characters, you've seen these people a thousand times before, and as recently as a month ago. Exchange the kids in Kicking & Screaming with the kids in Rebound and you don't know the difference.

I don't think anyone buying a ticket for Rebound is expecting the basketball equivalent of Citizen Kane, but the writers, and Lawrence could have shaken things up. There's no sass, plenty of boring characters, and no chance. Stay Away.

Above average family TV comedy becomes something less when you have to pay ten bucks a head in theaters

[dbborroughs · 7/10 · 10 July 2005]

If Hollywood wants to know why theater attendance is off they need look no further than this movie. The problem is not they are making bad movies, they're simply making movies you feel ripped off for having paid ten bucks to see. Once you get over the shock that you've paid too much for what you're seeing, Rebound is actually a good little movie.

Rebound tells the story of Coach Ray, a highly paid NCAA basketball coach who ends up banned from coaching for bad behavior. With no other options open to him he ends up coaching back at his old junior high school where things take mostly predictable, but enjoyable turns. For example the team is so bad at basketball it hasn't won a game in twelve years, and is made up of the typical assortment of kids who don't know left from right, so even though you know whats going to happen but you don't mind because Lawrence and the kids are fun to watch. And while it strives and fails to be a Bad News Bears of basketball, it is an enjoyable movie on its own terms. Just wait for DVD or cable, because paying 10 bucks a head to see this will spoil your enjoyment of whats a nice funny little movie.

For what it was? I actually got some kicks out of it..

[callanvass · 5/10 · 24 April 2010]

Let me state the only reason this perked my interest was the casting of Martin Lawrence. I was dreading going into this one due to all the horrible reviews, and the fact I'm picky on Kid films, but to my surprise I had some fun with it. I laughed pretty hard or at least chuckled when Martin had trouble with any of the kids, it was really quite cute to watch. The kids that starred in this movie, were also way better than I expected as well. My favorite had to be when Tara Correa-McMullen|Big Mac| started bullying people around, it was quite amusing to see. Let's not pretend though that this is fully original, and I'll tell you why. This is Basketball's version of The Mighty Ducks in a lot of ways. Coach Bombay from the Mighty ducks gets in trouble and has to coach a Hockey Team only to be a changed person afterwords. Roy McCormick gets in trouble with the league, and hits rock bottom coaching kids at a high school, but with that being said I still got more enjoyment out of it then I expected, and that's all I can ask for.

Performances. Martin Lawrence is slumming it a bit obviously, but still manages to be entertaining. He does his usual stuck, and it works well for the movie. Wendy Raquel Robinson is decent as the love interest, and had a few funny lines. Breckin Meyer is pretty good as the fickle sport's agent of Martin's. Horatio Sanz is funny as Martin's bumbling Assistant Coach. Oren Williams is rather bland as the lead kid. Patrick Warburton is funny as the Enemy Coach. Megan Mullally is hilarious as the sarcastic Principal, I relished the times she was on-screen. Steven Christopher Parker|Wes| does great as the Mao Ying type, I enjoyed his relationship with Big Mac. Steven Anthony Lawrence is funny as the constant Puker. Tara Correa-McMullen is great as Big Mac, it's a shame about her Death in real life.

Bottom line. Not a bad Rebound for Martin Lawrence|Pun intended|. It's far from an original or a great Comedy, but it passed the time amiably and made me smile. Worth the watch on a lazy day, it should do the job.

5 1/2 /10

Surprisingly good

[etsm92 · 2 April 2006]

Rebound/2005/***

Main Stars: Martin Lawrence Oren Williams

Breckin Meyer

Martin Lawrence definitely brought the laughs in this movie. There were other people that were funny but mainly Martin Lawrence was. This movie is all about basketball and barely anything else. Roy McCormick (Martin Lawrence) gets fired from coaching college basketball because of his maniacal temper tantrums. Now he has to coach 13 year old kids in a middle school. At first, it was bad for Roy but then he became more patient and better to the kids. It's difficult to explain why I liked this movie but it was just funny and I really was into it for some reason. Movie directed by Steve Carr.

Starts terrible, but gets better as it goes along....

[neal2zod · 7/10 · 3 July 2005]

Yes, the trailer is awful. Yes, the first half is excruciating. You couldn't pay me to watch the first half again, actually. But this movie actually gets MUCH better as it goes along! All sports comedies like this follow the same formula. I bet most of you can guess the ENTIRE plot of this movie. But the difference is in the details. And that's where Rebound surprised me - the team actually has some good character development, and Lawrence actually has a few great speeches ("...the games where Jordan was scoring the most, were the ones where the Bulls lost."). The love story between two of the players was sweet and surprising. The basketball scenes are exciting, even though the music seems to have been imported from a Bruckheimer movie. Even Horatio Sanz (worst "actor" ever) didn't annoy me.

It's refreshing to see a coach actually discuss STRATEGY in one of these kids movies. (unlike Hardball, where Keanu Reeves literally doesn't give ONE tip on how to play baseball) It's not a perfect movie - the Eddie Murphy-esquire preacher character (also played by Lawrence) is useless and seems like an afterthought. Megan Mullally literally disappears from the film halfway through. It appears to have been shot on a budget of $200. (The empty bleachers at the "big" college game!) All in all, it's nowhere as good as "real" sports movies like Friday Night Lights, but it beats the crap out of Juwanna Man or the Mighty Duck sequels.

how does a script like this get made

[MLDinTN · 5/10 · 23 July 2006]

The plot to Rebound has been done so many times. It's one of those films you know what will happen and when it will happen. You know in the end everything will work out after the main character has learned his lesson and decided to do the right thing.

In this case, Martin Lawrence plays a superstar college basketball coach, Roy, who gets banned from the NCAA for killing a mascot, a bird. The only job he can get is at a junior high. The team he's coaching haven't won a game in years. After getting to know the kids and plus finding out if he can start winning he'll be let back in the NCAA, Coach Roy decides to take the job seriously. Of course, one of the kids has a hot mom he pursues. Like a kids movie like this even needs a love interest.

So he takes a team that loses by over 100 and they start winning. He enjoys what he's doing. Then he gets the offer to back to college coaching. Of course, now he's this new guy and fame and money aren't everything. So unbelievable he turns down the job to continue to coach at a junior high. That's silly.

FINAL VERDICT: Overdone script. Not that funny. I'd say this movie is only for kids into sports.

Sweet, predictable, and funny

[itclix · 10/10 · 26 June 2005]

I know there are going to be a lot of criticism re: Rebound, but we really loved this movie because of it's sweetness, in spite of it's predictability.

Martin Lawrence was very endearing and funny as Coach Roy (and we were not fans of his prior to seeing Rebound). The kids they cast were excellent, because they were "real" looking kids--goofy, cute, innocent, etc. You really came to love all of the characters in this movie.

I would encourage all parents to take their kids to this very entertaining, squeaky-clean, feel good movie this summer!

We All Know The Formula But Still....

[g-bodyl · 7/10 · 4 October 2010]

This is one of those typical sports movie that everyone knows the outcome. I knew what was going to happen, but I kind of enjoyed myself somewhat. Martin Lawrence brings a good presence to the screen no matter what movie he's in. The kids were sweet but I can compare them to the kids in Kicking and Screaming.

This is about a hotshot college basketball coach who has been banned from life because of his anger management. The only way to get his reputation back is that he has to coach a misfit middle school team.

Overall, this was a decent film. I have seen better sports films. I probably would not have seen this if I wasn't forced to by my summer camp. I rate this film 7/10.

Hilarious Comeback by Director Steve Carr

[Filmcritic624 · 5/10 · 25 December 2005]

From the director of "Dr. Dolittle", and "Daddy Day Care", once again, true genius sparks from the filmaking of the genius of satire, parody, and downright outrageous comedy, as Steve Carr strikes again with "Rebound", the story about a crazed college coach, thrown of college basketball, gets the opportunity to go back to his roots and become the coach of the Smelters (A Middle School basketball team).

Martin Lawrence, the man who plays coach Roy McCormack, is again, the usual hysterical that he is. His witty humor and deadpan relationship with the kids are not even far between. The baskets are as funny as the game itself, as some yuppy comedy would put it, and is as good as it can get.

Tara Correa, this one's for you.

Gymnasium Burning.

[tfrizzell · 3 August 2005]

So bad it's scary flick that I suppose is pleasant enough for the youngest age groups, but the rest of us will suffer unspeakable pains sitting through this deflated dud. Martin Lawrence is a highly successful college basketball coach who has lost touch with the game and his players. A freak accident at one of his games is the last straw as he is banned from coaching the collegiate ranks and then decides to take a job at his old junior high school (being sent a fax by players without consent from administration, go figure!?). Soon the usual sports underdog story takes place with predictable and tiring results. Lawrence has been hit and miss (usually miss) in more adult-oriented flicks, but he looks like he is just trying to make a quick buck here. The kids are totally forgettable and the rest of the cast is unaccomplished and basically have no business in cinematic features. Plays like one of those Disney Network television movies. Hopelessly terrible air ball. 2 stars out of 5.

Probably the worst film I have seen this year

[TheManWithNoScreenName · 1/10 · 5 July 2005]

This may be a very mild spoiler but yes, this film actually had a script. Even more shocking; it actually had writers. I was originally assuming that someone had watched the Mighty Ducks, and switched hockey for basketball, Emilio Estavez for Martin Lawrence, and genuine entertainment for a farce of a movie. Lawrence can at least half-act, he proved that in Bad Boys. So he has no excuses for this. This brought out every tired cliché in the book and then slowly murdered them one by one. They even had the one training session scene in which everyone remarkably improves, which I thought had been retired forever. Even the obvious love interest was stupidly achieved and pointless. I don't mind a film being a little predictable, but I don't like one in which I can guess at least one in every two lines. This film was purely and simply shocking.

Good to spend your time with...

[Thanos_Alfie · 5/10 · 3 October 2021]

"Rebound" is a Comedy - Sport movie in which we watch a college basketball coach being demoted to junior varsity team. He has to deal with it and make the difference if he wants to recreate what he destroyed with his previous public meltdown.

I think that "Rebound" is another classic comedy movie without anything new. It's just a nice, funny comedy movie to spend your time with. It has a simple but funny plot, well presented by Steve Carr who is the director of this film. The interpretations of Martin Lawrence who played as Roy McCormick / Preacher Don and Wendy Raquel Robinson who played as Jeanie Ellis were good and the combination of their characters with all the differences worked very well. All in all, I have to say that "Rebound" is a nice movie to spend your time with because I am sure you will laugh a lot and yo will find it interesting.

Martin Lawrence tries to rebound, but fails once again...

[SeminolePhenom · 3/10 · 12 August 2005]

Coach Roy(Martin Lawrence) is a famous college basketball coach who's anger leads him to a indefinite suspension from the league. His life is spirals downhill and ends up coaching the middle school that he used to attend's basketball team.

Once again, Martin Lawrence proves himself to be a horrible actor. I can honestly say I have only enjoyed one of his movies(Blue Streak). And now he takes a totally different approach: The Family Movie. Martin when will you learn? You are not funny unless you are absolutely vulgar! Besides Martin Lawrences performance the movie was actually not the worst kid's movie ever. I laughed at a few of the kid's remarks, just never at Martin Lawrence. The movie can be very closely related to Like Mike(Starring Lil Bow Wow) but the scenes in which they place basketball are not even as exciting. Overall, the movie is not anything worth watching even for a family film.

I do not recommend this movie.

Martin Lawrence's come back in a bad movie

[jason_13 · 6/10 · 20 February 2006]

Hm, when I looked in his filmography an year ago, I didn't see Rebound and it came as a sort of a surprise to me and I was really happy. I have to say Lawrence is a very favorite comedian of mine. Some people criticize him for overacting, starring in stupid movies, but I like him and all his movies although I have to admit 1-2 of his movies are not really something I would love to watch over and over again like some of his other movies like Bad Boys and Big Momma's House.

So Lawrence is an average basketball coach who loses his job and he is hired to be kids basketball coach. This is the plot. Probably the worst movie, he has ever agreed to star in, but after all his appearance is the movie is enough to like it. I did like the whole movie only cause of Lawrence. I have to admit this. Kicking and Screaming was about soccer and Ferrell saved it and Rebound is about basketball and Lawrence saved it. 2005 wasn't a good year for sports comedies or at least for me. As I know Kicking and Screaming wasn't that bad for most people.

Anyway, Rebound was a bad movie with really bad acting except Lawrence of course. He is funny as always and brings lightness to a dull comedy. Stupid kids stories stuck in the plot only to make the movie over 75 minutes. It's really bad, but Lawrence deserves a 6. Oh, and another reason not to like this movie really much is the homicide of one of the cast members. This is really bad, cause she was just a kid.

Not-so-hot comedy by Martin Lawrence

[Kyle_Richards · 3/10 · 1 July 2005]

Well... granted I think this movie is geared towards kids but for what's it worth, it pretty much stunk. Martin didn't do anything funny besides getting hit by basketballs and this movie accomplishes nothing we haven't seen done better already. Horatio was severely underused for such a funny guy and the kids were just SO typical and predictable.

The plot was garbage and each step was more predictable than the last. In fact, its so bad I was predicting which kid would make what shot in the basketball game. That little brat from Even Stevens is in this movie and his gimmick is that he constantly vomits. I wanted to vomit with rage at the stupidity of the character. Then there's some chick on the team named "Big Mac" and her trademark is that she's a bully, bigger than all the kids on the team. These cliché, overdone characters made for no comedic situations and overall a lousy dose of comedy.

This is just another "the funniest moments were in the trailer" movies. People came looking for a good time with Martin Lawrence and Horatio Sans and got a big letdown. A much better "coach" movie would be Coach Carter, which is just coming out on DVD. Much better spent money and far more entertaining. Overall, Rebound was not a complete flop, but there are FAR better movies out there. Certainly the worst I've seen of Martin Lawrence.

Rebound is rebounding with cliches.**1/2

[edwagreen · 6/10 · 15 July 2006]

Removed as a coach from national basketball, Martin Lawrence returns to his middle school to teach a bunch of social misfits. Along the way he finds love and understanding of the kids. By the end, he gives up an opportunity to return to the big leagues to work with these kids instead. Naturally, they win a championship.

Sounds familiar? Even the gags here are familiar.

Lawrence attempts to be funny but the material he is given is difficult to work with.

More use should have been made with the kids. O yes, his love interest is a teacher in the school whose son is on the team.

Lawrence is made to be like Anne Bancroft performing miracles along the way. I will admit that it's always good to build a child's self-esteem. Any new ways to do this? Highly predictable film with clichés abounding.

Movie Schitzo's Review of "Rebound"

[moviemonster92 · 4/10 · 29 July 2006]

First off let me start out by saying that I am not a huge Martin Lawrence fan. Big Momma's House 1 and 2 were pretty good for some dumb comedy movies (me owning the first one and liking it)but, National Security with Martin and Steve Zahn was passable. OK, now on to Rebound. Hot Head Basketball coach Roy McCormic (Lawrence) gets fired and loses his fame and decides to win the press and basketball league back by coaching a small middle school team called The Mt. Vernon Smelters. So he meets the kids, Keith, best player, One Love, loves shoes, hair and ego, Goggles, best spirit, always hit in the face, Ralph, two older brothers, lots of experience, and Fuzzy, the junk food addict (no offense). So bit by bit he starts to teach them to win and later they add two more players, Wes, the shy tall guy who Roy calls "The Sledgehammer", and Big Mac, the school bully who is not afraid of a fight. They get better and better and slowly make their way to victory. Some of the side joke adult characters such as the principal of the school (Meagan Mullaly of TV's "Will and Grace") and an over enthusiastic competitive coach (Patrick Warburton of (Kronk's New Groove). Overall I thought this movie was good and entertaining. It teaches a lesson to not be self centered. It was very sad in my opinion that the girl who played Big Mac died from a gunshot and was rumored to be in a gang. She would have become a "SuperSta". All and all very entertaining.

2 out of 4 stars

Lite and pleasant Upbeat, nice family entertainment . Predictable

[Bleuuue · 8/10 · 2 July 2005]

The story has been done many times before, it is very predictable. Martin Lawrence adds a lot of funny moments, actually the whole movie is a great comedy. It is also a mood lifter, great for kids, many lessons about winning and loosing. Any one can be a winner, is one lesson. It is also a great lesson in leadership for adults, it is the leader who make superstars out of average individuals. How many famous people today are only successful because of their manager or their coach? may be people should leave a bad leader and move on. Of course, the main character self destructs because of arrogance, he hits rock bottom, but then he was able to go back to what made him successful the first place and he was able to enjoy the challenge again and enjoy life: no luck here, just a formula. Yes I liked this movie despite the mediocre acting and the predictable story, I thought a lot of people will too because they will be able to relate to one or more of its characters

Predictable but it may be a fun family film

[eXtreme23 · 6/10 · 17 March 2006]

Coach Roy (Lawrence) once was college basketball's top mastermind. But when his temper raises the limits he is banned from college basketball, his only coaching offer comes from a junior high school. This was his old junior high school, where he played a lot of basketball and won many state championships. The Smelters is what the team is called, and they never won a single basketball game ever, but with Coach Roy's help, they're sure that it will change.

I'm getting kind of sick of these children/sport movies. The team is terrible but with the help of they're coach it will change. We just had "Kicking & Screaming" spring of 2005. I felt that it was a pretty decent movie, which I prefer over this. But these type of movies have to stop. They maybe pretty good family films, but most of them are predictable. What I did like about this one was that Coach Roy didn't have to do anything to get his team to the finals, it's that the team worked as a team and they got themselves to the top. Usually in these kinds of movies, the coach makes them better, but if you watch how Coach Roy performs his task as a coach, he knows what to do. I actually feel that Martin Lawrence is getting tierd of the movies he's doing. His roles were pretty good in the last decade, but I don't know about now.

Rebound can be a good movie, but there are other sport movies that I prefer to watch before this. Such as "The Big Green", " Little Giants" and others. I did laugh a few scenes in this movie, it's pretty funny and it could be a decent movie. 6/10.

Rebound, aka Rehash

[xeroxchamp · 2/10 · 1 July 2005]

If it is possible to fit more clichés into a movie than should logically fit in its runtime, Rebound boldly has some claim to success. Since I work at a movie theater, I was paid 6.50 an hour to watch this two hour film, and it was barely sufferable. Rebound doesn't really have characters; there are just static, singularly-painted figures that we can't root for because it follows every sports film cliché in the book, meaning the audience knows in the first five minutes how everything will turn out before the characters even get there. Any attempt to surprise us takes the back seat to the tried and true method of formulaic storytelling that ruins this film.

I will admit that the actors and actresses in this film seemed very talented, but because of the absent values of the film, didn't have a good outlet for their craft. The talent (perhaps minus Martin Lawrence) would succeed in a project with more vitality. And periodically, there are one or two funny moments (some of which are accidents like boom mics falling into the shot). But there is absolutely no reason to see this film in light of the other films that are out, including War of the Worlds. If your kids want to see something, at least spare them this and go to Madagascar or something less offensively routine.

Conclusion: Utter waste of money, time, and awkward jokes. You couldn't pay me to watch this again.