Love inspirational sports movies with messages of hope and overcoming obstacles, especially when they are true. Tried to watch this on a flight, but gave up after 30 minutes. Other than being introduced to kids from difficult situations, no plot unfolded during that time. Winning scores randomly flashed across the screen periodaclly to show that they were having success as underdogs, but no unfolding storyline was evident other than hard times in a rough town.
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rpbp-092508 December 2021
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daydreamer-9014722 May 2021So the acting by the young high schoolers was pretty atrocious. Hopefully it isn't a reflection of their talent, and is more a reflection of the fact that none of them have actually ever been competitive athletes and/or come from challenging backgrounds themselves. I don't fault them that. But it does bring the overall believability of this true-to-life film down. The only character I would say was believable (and was well cast) was the head coach. And they just over did it with his motivational speeches. Solid messages, but few good coaches would ramble on that long. I got the distinct impression that every other 'fan' that was given significant coverage in this film, family members and such, were actors that are indeed among the 80% of the population who have never had any interest in sports as fans or otherwise. And that includes Fishburne. Not sure why he took this part. There is nothing especially compelling about the film. They tried to portray the kids as interesting because of their challenged backgrounds (I guess?). But the problem with this is that lots of kids who play sports come from these backgrounds, playing on teams that are wildly successful to playing on teams that are average/mediocre to playing on those that are very much under-performing. That's nothing new at all.
The one reason why I've given it 4 is that they did the high school setting scenes very nicely. They didn't ruin it with dialogue or background music. The sights and sounds just came through. It felt authentic. I'm not sure it wasn't. Very well conceived and very well done.
(Spoiler) So about the plot. You don't actually know what the plot is unless you read the summary in the info on your service provider or on the streaming page. Mine got it horribly wrong and said it was an Alabama team. But I can't really blame them for this error, because the fact is I didn't know what was supposedly so special about this team until I saw the end epilogue descriptions. **It seems that the best talent on the team were all undersized.** Now the offensive linemen and the bulk of the defensive players (inside linebackers, D-Line) were all likely as meaty as you'd expect of any state championship Texas team. But the quarterback, tailback, one of the receivers, and I guess one of the outside linebackers (?) were all short and of small stature. This is why they were not expected to be very successful. That fact is never portrayed or mentioned during the film, which limits the intrigue that I think is supposed to be there. Add in the fact that they were consistently clobbering their opponents one right after the other, made you wonder why anybody should care anyway.
The scenes where they were doing live action of football with the actual actors had various gaffs. Cringeworthy at times but ignorable I suppose. The one that capped things off the most to me was at the end when the announcer said they had 2nd and goal on their own 5 yard line. Now this is theoretically possible by a couple of means. But the series of catastrophic events that would have to take place for this to occur would possibly alone be worth its own separate film.
The most glaring problem with the movie was that one of the central themes - "Brother's Keeper" - really didn't apply to this movie. I kept expecting at some point that you would see how the main athletes' lives were so intertwined that they would immediately be available to give each other support through any of the worst experiences they were having. NOPE. They suffered their respective travails alone individually. Hey it's great that they all played football well together. But that has nothing to do with the very serious issues surrounding the lives of these young men. The pastoral coach appeared to be worthless and I'm not sure what that person's role actually was in real life. The whole "Brother's Keeper" thing either didn't apply, or they completely failed in portraying it properly in any way. Sure there were a few "It's all going to be ok" scenes, but nothing that would make you think that these people were always there for each other during the best of times as well as during the worst.
Anyway, if you want some throwback to your high school days, the movie is worth fast forwarding through to those scenes. The first scene in the restaurant with Fishburne was pretty good. That's about it. -
thepriceofpayne17 September 2021As an Abilene resident, and an Abilene High alum, I had many chances to be apart of this film. I'm glad I wasn't. While I've definitely seen worse films, and there are some moments of good. Both Abilene and this Story deserve better. I'm all for indie movies but for first time directors and writers, I feel more extensive research needed to be done for this film. Abilene may also have rough places but there is a lot of beauty here and I think the filmmakers chose not to focus on that. While Laurence Fishburne and Milo Gibson are fine actors, the direction is completely off and the entire movie feels like a needless copy pandering to the crowd who enjoyed "Friday Night Lights" further evidenced by the films title change from Brother's Keeper to Under the Stadium Lights. Which is not a fair title considering that all games filmed in this movie take place during the DAY! I had many friends as extras in the film and two of my brothers are even in this as extras. This film could have been something very special and open up the country to Abilene, TX. But it seems the filmmakers didn't truly care about telling a good story and only about making a quick buck and stretching their talents for the future. Who knows maybe there will be better films in the future one bad film doesn't make a person a bad storyteller. But for a city who really care for this team and the personal stories it highlights deserve a shot at something a whole lot bigger.
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mywadofclay2 January 2022Dumb movie. Just shows clips of games and back stories of players. No plot. Don't waste your time. Would have been better made as a documentary. Bad actors too.
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vazzarello14 August 2021Don't waste your time. The story was worth about 15 minutes of footage. It was like the Director went to the cutting room floor and added an hour and a half of footage just so they could call it a movie instead of a trailer. That footage should have stayed on the cutting room floor.
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I went into watching this film without expecting much more than a simple sports drama. With a cast consisting of Milo Gibson and Laurence Fishburne, I was excited to see something I could unwind to with a plot that reels you in and has you cheering for both the characters and the home team.
Instead you are left with one of the most poorly shot, directionless sports dramas you may ever watch, a real d-grade version of Friday Night Lights. The only real football game scenes are at the end where the movie expects you to care about this final game against the Longhorns but fails to make you care about it or even realise the last 1/4 of the film is going to contain it. I can not possibly think of one good thing about this film besides Milo Gibson's acting managing to be good enough to keep you hoping the movie is going to get better. -
rcriggs-563622 June 2021I had no idea what this movie was - my husband picked it out, so I had no preconceived expectations or notions at all.
Let's just say I'm not a huge football fan although I know enough and I can follow the plays. By the end of the movie, I was sitting on the edge of my seat, practically hitting my husband with excitement, as if we were in the stands.
What a pleasure to see teenagers with such beautiful values and morals (and faces and bodies. Oops - did I say that out loud?). And we really appreciated not being bombarded with offensive language.
Gee, they really do still make good movies. -
TexForever10 June 2021Full disclosure--I am from Abilene, and I think I have a pretty good eye for movies.
This film will not win any academy awards, but it is a good story that needed to be told.
The events in the movie are very close to true events and the lives the athletes led. They even took out some of the more sensational true events that were not as relevant to the plot.
I saw a rough cut of this movie when it was still called Brother's Keeper. From there, they re-edited the movie extensively, definitely for the better. If this was a Marvel movie, they would have done reshoots once they saw what they had in editing. Unfortunately, that was not feasible with this movie and budget. Just a few days of reshoots and pickups would have made a big difference. Seeing the evolution of the movie, I can tell what they wanted to do, but they just didn't have the tape. Hence, you are left with some plot holes, actual game tape that looks like it was filmed on VHS, and some other things I would have done differently. BTW, I say all this without ever having talked to anyone involved in directing or editing the movie, but it is pretty clear to me.
With the bad out of the way, I am really proud of Chad Mitchell and the stories he told. A lot of the kids were from very troubled backgrounds, and they had to be each other's family, because they had really bad home lives. They truly came together in a "Remember the Titans" way. That is not added to the story artificially.
They did a good job with shooting the big game. Again, it was mostly true to the real game, except the final score was a little more lopsided.
Milo Gibson did a good job, and Lawrence Fishburne did a great job. Fishburne played local BBQ legend Harold, and yes, he would randomly burst into song, whether in the kitchen or in the dining room. You can find it pretty easily on YouTube. Unfortunately, Fishburne was so magnetic, it kind of highlighted the lack of acting chops on some of the kids.
So, if you like football, Texas, high school kids overcoming obstacles, or all the above, I think you will enjoy this movie. As I said, it is a story that needs to be told. -
sernanakye20 June 2021I can't speak for everyone but I actually really enjoyed this movie! There were a lot of great actors, and several scenes really provoked emotion. All in all, I loved it. I think they did a really great job!
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brianokeeffe10 June 2021Ok, so let me start off by saying that I live in Abilene Tx where this was shot. I went to the same High School and I remember this football season. I enjoyed watching the movie for that exact reason. They made our city look like an inner city, which it isn't. It's a pretty nice city, but kids can get mixed up in drugs and gangs like any other city. This city doesn't chew you up and spit you back out. It was interesting to see what these kids went through though and the hardships they overcame. That win was amazing for those boys and this entire city. I'm not sure if anyone outside our city would enjoy this movie, its not as great as Remember The Titans, but it might be a good rental for a boring night.
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nogodnomasters11 January 2022This is another "Cinderella" type sports story that has become very popular. Running short on good stories, they shift to a team that was a powerhouse the year before in Abilene, Texas. Rather than focus on the football aspect, they look at the issues the main players have in their family life. Actors played all the real players and outtakes from the real games were used as filler. The religious aspect was comparatively light and Laurence Fishburne played a guy who owns a restaurant and not a coach.
Guide: No swearing, sex, or nudity.