Two stars

PG-13,137 minutes, South WInd 12

Samuel L. Jackson has the most commanding and intense presence of any actor of his generation. If there’s one thing he’s taught audiences it is that you do not mess with this guy. Because of this, he is the perfect actor to play the title character in Coach Carter, a high school basketball coach who demands that his players put more time into their lives off the court than on it. It’s hard to not like a movie like this because it has good intentions and its heart is in the right place, but it’s not enough to elevate it above any other inspirational sports movie.

Coach Carter was inspired by the life of Ken Carter, a basketball coach at a California high school in the late 1990s. Carter made his players sign a contract saying they would maintain a 2.3 GPA, attend all of their classes, sit in the front row of those classes and wear ties on game days. The team consists of the usual band of misfits, disrespectful and rebellious players who don’t like the idea of a new coach coming into their gym and ordering them around. It’s no surprise that before long Coach Carter has the team turned completely around on the basketball court, improving the team’s record from four victories to being undefeated. But when Carter learns the team members haven’t been performing up to the academic standards he set for them, he locks the gym and forfeits games until the team meets the goals he has set.

Jackson uses as much screen presence as he can here. I can’t imagine anyone else more suited for the part. When he walks onto that court and tells his players to address himself and everyone else as “sirs” you know damn well they’re going to do it. But what drags Coach Carter down are the sports movie clichés. There are a few last-second, slow motion, three-point shots at the buzzer that we’ve all seen too many times before.