dweber34 Reviews

My Many Sons (2016)

Accurate but choppy bio of a great coach

[5/10 · 27 July 2021]

As a former college player, coach and parent of a college player, I tend to be hyper picky about the details in any portrayal of basketball on screen.

Within the constraints of its budget, My Many Sons did well on that count. Getting permission to film on the Lipscomb and Northern campuses helped it feel genuine. The screenplay, though, seemed like a collection of people's favorite Don Meyer stories, rather than a truly cohesive plot. In being honest enough to show his negatives the film makers also came dangerously close to not making Meyer a likable character.

I had the chance to coach against Meyer in Nashville when the Bison were at the peak of their powers, bringing in a small Christian college from out of state that had no real chance to win, but accepted an invite to their tournament because we had some big time alums in Tennessee. Conversing with Don was enjoyable. I got why he won, brought a million kids to his camps and sold tons of his videotapes. But he had a little con running beneath the surface. We were standing outdoors, the skyscrapers of downtown Nashville visible and he insisted he was nothing but a good old country boy who could never hack it in California. 😂

The absolute autocrat shown I the movie seemed a little more humble in real life. After we played Lipscomb in the first round and, as expected, got thumped, I asked him if I could observe their shoot around the next day. At one point, he began correcting a player's mistake as they ran through a play, but an assistant coach interrupted, saying "Coach, remember we changed that last week." He thought for a second and said "Yeah, you're right. Sorry, Joe."

My Many Sons was, in the end, worth watching but could've benefitted from smoother development of the main character.

Stars Fell on Alabama (2021)

Stop me if you've heard this one....

[6/10 · 21 April 2021]

How does a picture like this get green lit for 2021 release?

It's a pleasant enough story, played out by competent, attractive actors. But zero originality. Movie about movies. Sophisticates land in the small town south. Roll Tide. High school reunion with bar scene, flag football scene and dance scene. Girl meets boy with mild threats to their bliss from an ex boyfriend and professional conflicts that are overcome. Post credit scene of them with their eventual children.

It's all been done so often. I can only assume the cast of skilled but not famed actors somehow prevailed upon someone somewhere to produce a feature-length sizzle reel for them to show they can play leads after solid careers of one episode guest roles on TV series. Not a waste of time, per se, but nothing of ground breaking brilliance either.

Tall Girl (2019)

Antiquated plot premise

[5/10 · 10 August 2020]

Ava Cota does a nice job in her first lead role, making Jodi as written come to life. Her emotions rang true and her personality underwent no drastic changes despite a spectacularly unrealistic ending.

Also, I give the film makers credit for doing a high school movie sans jocks and cheerleaders. However, therein also lies a chunk of the false premise the script is built on: that tall girls in 2019 are outcasts.

Since the advent of Title IX in the 1970s, as opportunities for girls to play sports increased and female students were drawn to taking part, height became a desired trait to many at any high school. Basketball -- Jodi does reference people calling her "Lebron" but doesn't seem to be on the Ruby Bridges High team -- volleyball, swimming, track and field all prize height at certain positions or events. As girls and boys grow up together watching each other in sports, there is nothing "freakish" about a 6-1 or 6-2 girl.

My late wife (high school class of '82) was 6-1, our daughter (class of '12) 6-feet even. Neither took any crap for their height. Both played basketball. but I think their acceptance came more from being part of a team which also featured other tall girls than the fact they were both pretty good.

I realize not all girls, tall or short, play sports, but Jodi's one professed interest -- playing piano -- is said to be something she is suited for because of her wide hands. The current reduction -- I would never say elimination because people at schools all across the country are still bullied for many traits -- in harassment of tall girls is partially a product of many taking part in activities where their height is a plus. Tall girls who are "ordinary students" aren't automatically thought of as freaks if those who do play sports or model or whatever all else fields are now more open to tall women are not.

Palm Springs (2020)

Less than the sum of its parts

[4/10 · 13 July 2020]

There were some likable scenes scattered throughout, but the overall premise was.... who knows? The repeated day thing has been done before, we all know that. Here, they drop into the loop for some mystical reason, but physically blast there way out -- meaning there was no higher power or test involved, just random hardship. Some good acting but as they say, hampered by a weak script.

Uncut Gems (2019)

I've known guys like Howie...

[5/10 · 26 May 2020]

...and cringe at their antics. Hustling every angle in hopes of coming out ahead on a monetary scorebook. Yeah, I know they're addicted to the high, it's a disease, blah, blah, blah. But even the best made movie about them is more nauseating than fascinating.

I liked the celebrity cameos, the thugs were realistic, letting the gambling addict win the crucial parlay was refreshing. Sandler proved he can play some one other than himself and dove deep into a dramatic character. Garnett showed some guts, letting himself be portrayed as even slightly motivated by a scumbag like Howie.

But another movie about a rich shyster with wife, kids and gumar who refuses to win isn't award-worthy.

Olympic Dreams (2019)

Well done film without a payoff

[7/10 · 16 May 2020]

I thoroughly enjoyed the story until the final scene, which doubled back away from the meaningful empty stadium scene just moments before.

The refusal to let Kroll's character commit to changing his path after hinting at romantic and professional changes the whole film leaves him as just a weenie male version of a sports groupie: drawn to a stellar athlete, but only for a short period. It's almost none thing more than a slight twist on the writers' prior film, Tracktown, where Pappas' athlete character goes to a guy with the intent to lose her virginity, then cuts and runs from him moments later.

I greatly admire Pappas for blending a world class track and field career with acting/directing and look forward to her and her husband's next picture, but this one kinda fell while leading the 5,000 at the top of the stretch.

Tracktown (2016)

Tells a valuable story viewers aren't necessarily expecting

[8/10 · 14 May 2020]

A well realized trip through the humanity of an elite female athlete - all in to her goals and profession but constantly looking outward with a bit of curiosity and wonder at mainstream girls being girls. The fate of the semi-boyfriend, selfish enough to plead with her to cut a few training corners, but kinda run over in the end, is also realistic of many who connect with a celebrity in a field they themselves don't quite get.

Use of the supporting cast was not as stellar as the rest of the movie. The dad was a nice rendering of a pushy, yet not obsessed sports dad. The best friend was generic and the mom character not overly necessary through no fault of the actors.

A final golden touch was ending on the starting gun of the big race, no dramatic rally to win, no soul crushing loss, just the character we've come to know taking her next steps.

All Day and a Night (2020)

It is what it is... the city is the lead character

[7/10 · 13 May 2020]

Teachers of fiction sometimes talk about setting as a character in a story. That's exactly what we have here. Those who say it's boring or a "typical hood movie" don't know much about Oakland -- or similar environments -- from the inside out.

The movie argues that people don't have many real choices. Some IMDB reviewers say the characters lack the will to overcome hardships. It's some of both, but if you've done more than drive through the city, you'll know there's a constant grimness to what you see and hear, even on sunny days, even when the Warriors held their parades. People live shortchanged, mocked by the Bay Area's natural beauty, by the once-majestic houses that stand throughout the town, even in "the hood."

People on both sides of the law are hard. Simply turning a corner onto a street where other drivers have chosen to stop and talk (and eff your hurry to get somewhere) can lead to violent conflict. Going into a 7-11, an auto parts store, whatever, can mean navigating strangers who put you on the spot with "fighting words."

The motor homes and tents of the homeless are everywhere. If you ask why the cops don't move them along, the answer is "they've got way too much else more important to do."

When you wake up every morning in that environment -- with routine everyday decisions carrying the potential to turn meaningful -- life becomes constant edgy irritation. The characters in "All Day..." face interactions with place as much as with the other characters. Like another recent movie set in the town, "Blindspotting," this movie captures the grind. And yeah, perhaps at the expense of more violence than needed and a slowish plot, but it tells the story in set out to tell.

Hollywood Ending (2002)

Simply bad

[2/10 · 21 September 2017]

Easy to sum this picture up: Movie-about-movies + Woody Allen plays himself again + Deus Ex Machina happy ending. Foolish add-ins like a rat-eating rock musician son who Woody, playing the same nebbish as always, allegedly took fishing as a child. I realized I wasn't getting any enjoyment from the film when it took me three separate logins on HBONow to finish it.

Match Point (2005)

Bland as a high concept movie can be

[4/10 · 22 June 2014]

I'll keep this short: at some point in any story, the main character should show at least a small degree of something human. In this film, the protagonist Chris Wilton barely changes expression, gives us no reason to believe all these people around him would come to like him.

What he risks to do the things he does is some vague thought that having played his way to comfort he'd hate to go back to a lesser lifestyle. His job is high paying but he isn't saving the world. He's caught between two women who he doesn't much like and who like him far more than the script gives them reasons to.

Woody being Woody. Rounding up some competent good-looking actors (not a huge Scarlett J fan myself but she comes off both beautiful and believable here, she at least gets an A) and trying to pay homage to a classic dead novelist, he winds up with a stylish two hours of ho-hum that might con some critics into thinking its arty but sure isn't entertaining.

Somewhere (2010)

And?

[4/10 · 1 December 2012]

Movie star is bored with La Dolce Vita. Wow. Great new concept for a film. Movie about movies or movie people with uptown problems. Not an original idea nor one that is done particularly well here. I forget the author, but there was a writer who once counseled another who had written about a bunch of boorish thugs "give me a reason to care about your brutes." Kinda the same thing here. Oh, poor Johnny no longer gets excited having beautiful blonde twins do pole dances for him. Johnny doesn't know his daughter has been figure skating for three years. Don't care. And, then, what of the ending. He parks his expensive sports car and begins to walk down a deserted country road. What? He's assuming a beautiful star struck fan will pick him up for his next boring adventure? He's going to walk out into the heat until he dies of thirst?

Plot hole: Entire movie.

Breakaway (2011)

Check 'Em Like Beckham....

[5/10 · 15 July 2012]

....that is all....

But since I need to have 10 lines to get the succinct review contained in the title published, I guess I'll tell you how much I am looking forward to the 2020 movie "Turban Powered" in which a misunderstood Indian boy growing up in North Carolina has to prove himself to the good ol' boys on the NASCAR circuit and try to gain the understanding of his disapproving grandfather (played by Anupam Kher) the same weekend as his niece's wedding, which takes place the same day as the first Camping World Truck Series race the misunderstood Indian boy is set to drive in.... and the 2029 film "Hand Ball" in which a traditional Soccer-American couple living in Silicon Valley (played by Parminder Nagra and Jonathan Rhys Meyers) are forced to come to terms with their teenage daughter, who has chosen to accept a basketball scholarship to Stanford over a soccer scholarship to her mother's alma mater, Santa Clara. Anupam Kher appears as the kindly grandfather, Mr. Bhamra. Hilarious scenes at the traditional Irish wedding of Meyers' sister, which takes place on NCAA Letter of Intent signing day.

Day of Anger (1967)

A Great Teenage Memory

[7/10 · 13 September 2008]

One of my favorite teen memories surrounds the film "Day of Anger." I saw it at the El Rey Theatre in Walnut Creek, California in 1972 as part of a double feature with "Superfly." Don't ask me how that match-up was booked, but I went with a couple of friends and thanks to the new release paired with it, the place was nearly packed. Old school singleplex with 1000 or so seats. Everyone was hushed and into the story until Lee Van Cleef stomped into the scraggly bar in the scraggly village, banged on the wooden plank serving as the bar and demanded: "Get me Wild Jack!" For a moment the theater remained hushed. Then, from a few rows behind us, a guy yelled out "WILD JACK! What kinda name is that?" Suddenly taken by the over-the-top melodrama, the crowd turned the whole experience on its end and started howling at what now seemed to be a self-referential satire on the spaghetti western genre. Of course I didn't think in such high-falutin' terminology at the time, I just thought it was funny. With all due respect to serious aficianados of the genre, it was just one fun night. One of the guys I went with suggested that we go back and repeat the astonished "WILD JACK!" comment the next night, but we figured, I think rightly, that you had to be there, it was a one shot thing, with perfect timing that had us laughing too hard to take it seriously when poor Scott Mary finally had his day in the sun and finished off his mentor while reciting the final rule of the gunfighter.

Coach Carter (2005)

Great movie, not completely based on fact

[8/10 · 24 January 2006]

I couldn't help but enjoy this movie, and it is still in heavy rotation on my 12-year old daughter's DVD selection. But, having lived 17 blocks from Richmond High in 1999 when the actual events were taking place, it's tough to ignore a lot of the differences between fact and fiction.

For starters, the Oilers school colors were changed from Red, White and Blue to suspiciously Hoosiers-like maroon and gold. While Richmond High is a rough school, its gym is hardly the bleak facility depicted in the movie. In reality, it is well-lit if shopworn version of a typical California suburban 1960s-era gym. Its as though director Thomas Carter wanted to out-ghetto the "Carver High" gym he grew up in as Hayward on "The White Shadow." Although the movie does touch on this with the "hearing" scene and the scene in which the players mock Carter's press conference, Kenny Carter and his antics were not universally appreciated. Nor was he, as shown, the sole positive force in these kids' lives. The true athletes' names, with the exception of little Carter, Damien, were changed in the movie. One actual player, Chris Dixon, played in the NFL later for the Oakland Raiders... makes you think there may have been an influential football coach somewhere in his life, don't you think? Also, the whole time line was screwy. As a long-time high school and college coach, I had difficulty with the old coach -- a pretty close depiction of one-time Oiler coach Roy Rogers by the way -- working the first game while Damien plays for "St. Francis" (another fiction, the only St. Francis in the Bay Area is down on the Peninsula in the Central Coast Section and would not have met RHS in the North Coast Section playoffs; nor for that matter would any of Richmond's playoff games have taken place in San Francisco. The NCS is all East and North Bay schools) only to see Carter step in in mid-season and his son transfer in mid-year and play for Richmond (illegal by California Interscholastic Federation rules). The movie shows a school dance held on campus. That is not something most inner-city schools in California attempt; they have the annual proms like everyone else... off campus in classy venues. Friday night school dances have become a casualty of the same crime-ridden social setting "Coach Carter" portrays. It was also irritating to have the singer Ashanti play Kenyon's girlfriend with a thick New York accent... and to have the entire movie shot in Long Beach and other LA-area locations rather than making the 350-mile trip up to Richmond to shoot it where it happened.

On an emotional level, the movie was awesome. When movies are portrayed as true stories, though, I wish more attention to detail was paid. Socially-conscious dramas seem particularly prone to poetic license. In "Hurricane" the white fighter who beats RUBEN Carter is depicting as getting a scandalous we-wuz-robbed decision. In Ruben Carter's autobiography, though, he bitterly blames his manager for putting him in that fight, one in which he knew he was over matched. Now, as I understand it, the new blockbuster "Glory Road" manipulates the facts of Don Haskins coaching career and the score at various points of the 1966 NCAA championship game.

Making "true" sports movies is a bit like fudging the facts of one's one playing career... those box scores are out there in black and white, waiting to disappoint those who believed you. The same for "period" pieces in which the "period" is less than a decade back and a lot of people who were there are still around.

Still, Coach Carter reaches a lot of people... We now live in a suburban neighborhood in another state, far from RHS and the kids my daughter plays AAU ball with like to do the "Rich-WHAT? Rich-MOND!" chant and are amazed that we lived near such a fabled place.