SYNOPSIS:
A rag-tag group of misfit kids were all the tiny town of Minden had for a Pop Warner football team. That is, until Curtis Plummer (Ice Cube) came along. With a secret weapon in tow - his pigtail wearing niece Jasmine who is a natural quarterback - he will take the team from a group of clumsy goofballs to a football powerhouse. Inspired by a true story and atarring rising star Keke Palmer (Akeelah and the Bee) as Jasmine Plummer, The Longshots is "entertaining, heartfelt and funny. One of the best movies of the year!" - MovieGuide.org
MOVIE REVIEW:
Who would have expected Fred Durst, the front man of the band Limp Bizkit, would
become a feature film director, and for a film which is remote from the kind of
attitude he portrays when blaring into the microphone in his alternative rock
ensemble. The Longshots is yet another one of those feel good movies on American
football which is inspired by true life events, and I guess this is something which
will never go out of fashion, albeit even if the film just piled on cliche after
cliche.
Keke Palmer is at the age where she's casted as a prodigy. From Akeelah and The Bee
where she played the titular character, she turned out to be a spelling genius. For
The Longshots, she follows this prodigy mold for her Jasmine character, who turns
out to be a natural quarterback. Problem is of course she has to discover this
talent of hers, otherwise she'll be forever stuck at being bullied and looked down
upon in school by the more girly girls, just because she aspires to be a fashion
model.
So in comes Uncle Curtis, played by Ice Cube, yeah THE Ice Cube who was once xXx,
but now has piled on the kilos to play a down and out, one-time-promising football
player before an accident took away that potential. Seeing that the genes for the
sport do run in the family, he managed to coax Jasmine into the sport, and work on
some basic training (cue montage sequence with great background music), before
finally being accepted by the town's team given that, well, they've got nothing left
to lose.
There were a couple of sub plots thrown around that didn't really quite make the
cut, such as the half-baked romance between Curtis and Jasmine's teacher, nor the
very hurried tussle of ownership between Curtis and Jasmine's biological father over
a rising sports star who's pining for the dad who walked out of their family. What
did work however is the chemistry between Ice Cube and Keke Palmer, as they make
quite the excellent duo of reluctant relatives drawing each other from their social
shells, and the teacher-prodigy whom each have to depend on the other for that extra
boost of morale.
Being a sports film, The Longshots also boasted some tightly crafted action
sequences involving American Football, and even though this is not the NFL but the
Pop Warner Football Tournament, it still provided enough dramatic antics on the
field that would make you eventually root for Jasmine, and the team from Minden
Browns, thanks to many of the rousing scenes where the underdog phenomenon just
envelopes your emotions, and that of the townsfolk into taking affirmative action in
their lives. Talk about the sporting spirit being rubbed off to the everyday man in
the street.
This is one film that won't go wrong as far as wholesome family entertainment is
concerned, or for that lazy weekend afternoon. It's fairly standard presentation,
and it works if you're not already jaded by the many similar, genre movies out
there.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
This Code 3 DVD contains no extra features.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Fairly standard visual presentation given the rather ordinary cinematography employed, with an audio presentation that doesn't seem to milk what it's worth during the full blown football games that come with crunching tackles and scrunches.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Stefan Shih
Posted on 28 September 2009
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