Rebound

Adam Sandler used to be the actor I simply could not stand. Before him, it was Pauly Shore. However, Adam has shows some promise in more dramatic roles such as Spanglish and Punch Drunk Love. However, my current most annoying actor is Martin Lawrence. Looking back at his oevre, I couldn't find one single performance I really enjoyed.

In this film, Lawrence plays a bigtime basketball college coach for an Ohio State-like university, who is an egotistical and self-centered showboater. When, on the way from being ejected from a game for bad behavior, he kills the oposing team's falcon mascot, he is kicked out of the athletic association. However, the association's rules allow for reinstatement after an ejected coach successfully coaches a team outside the league.

At the urging of his agent, Lawrence volunteers to coach the basketball team at his middle school and this sets up the main body of the movie.

It's predictable that the team is a bunch of nerdy misfits who don't know shit from Shinola and that, at first indifferent, he grows to care about them and starts really pulling them together as a team and teaching them how to play. They start winning, win the big championship, and he grows along with the kids. (Oh, did I spoil it for you?!!!)

Lawrence is just about the worst actor in the movie. The kids are pretty good. However, the problem isn't the acting or even Lawrence himself, it's the directing. The movie is a bit short, and time after time I had the feeling something was missing from middle part of the movie where Lawrence is training and teaching his team.

While films like this are predictable, this one was tediously predictable. A little bit of suspense would have have helped quite a bit, especially for those of us who've seen so many movies like this.