Glory Road

As long as there are sports, I think there will always be unique, entertaining and well-told films about sports. The natural drama and tension translate well to the big screen, and all the better when the stories are true to history. Going for some timely reviews with the Final Four and National Championship game around the corner, but here goes with 2006's Glory Road.

A high school girls basketball coach, Don Haskins (Josh Lucas) is hired by Texas Western, a small Division I school in El Paso, to lead the men's basketball team. With virtually no budget, no facilities and no history to speak of as a program, Haskins has to think outside the box as he tries to assemble a team that can win some games. Not surprisingly, many highly touted/ranked players are interested in playing for the little school so Haskins starts to recruit African American athletes who are getting no interest from other DI schools. Just about everyone at the university bristles at the very thought, but Haskins doesn't care much what others think of him or his program. He gets the athletes to come out and play, but the odds are stacked against him. In the mid 1960s when black athletes were still a rarity in basketball, Haskins has seven black players on his roster.

From director James Gartner, 'Glory' is the true story of the 1965-1966 Texas Western men's basketball team that ultimately won the National Championship, defeating powerhouse Kentucky in the championship game. Read more about the team HERE.That in itself isn't hugely appealing, is it? Nah, it's how they did it. Utilizing an entirely black lineup, coach Don Haskin's team defeated an entirely white Kentucky team coached by coaching legend (and known racists) Adolph Rupp. Spoilers? Eh, sorry, I figured if you made into the third paragraph of a sports review, you knew the history. My bad. It was a strategy, a season, and ultimately, a game that changed the face and direction of college basketball. It revolutionized how the game was played, something that still has quite an impact on basketball today in 2013.

Telling the story from the angle of the players and coaches, 'Glory' follows Haskins' hiring through his recruitment, preseason, season and ultimately the NCAA tournament. Clocking in at 110 minutes (hold the credits), it tackles quite the large topic, racism (even civil rights on a bigger level) in a rather turbulent time in American history. Black players dealt with death threats, racist chants and "cheers," any number of horrific things. At times, 'Glory' goes down the heavy-handed route to show us the prejudices they faced. It gets almost tiring to the point it's exhausting as the season develops. Is this how it happened in real-life during the season? Unfortunately, yes, very much so. Racism -- small scale or a bigger scale -- is horrific, but watching it doesn't always make for an enjoyable story. Interesting? Yes, but uncomfortable to the point it takes away from the enjoyment.

Playing real historical figures -- real figures who are still alive at that -- can be a daunting task, but the performances here are solid. As Hall of Fame coach Don Haskins, Lucas makes the most of a familiar part; the coach trying to get his players to gel and be the best they can. Emily Deschanel is solid as Don's wife, Mary, dealing with the prejudice/racism on the home front. Evan Jones plays Don's nerdy assistant, Moe, while Red West is a scene-stealer as Ross Moore, a longtime basketball and strength coach with the weathered face and years of knowledge. And in a small part, Jon Voight is solid as legendary Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp.   

And then there's the players, both good and bad. The movie runs under two hours and has a lot of characters to deal with. Texas Western's team includes Bobby Joe Hill (Derek Luke), a skilled guard out of Detroit, David Lattin (Schin A.S. Kerr), a bullish, skilled forward from Houston, Orstin Artis (Alphonso McAuley), a Gary, Indiana YMCA kid with flash but not fundamentals, Harry Flournoy (Mehcad Brooks), a strong-willed all-around player from Gary, Willie Worsley (Sam Jones III), a fiery little guard from Brooklyn, Willie Cager (Damaine Radcliff), an energetic, skilled worker from Brooklyn, and Nevil Shed (Al Shearer), a gifted player from Brooklyn without the toughness. The white players on the team are generally kept in the background, Austin Nichols and James Olivard being the most visible. With so many characters, they come across at times like cardboard cutouts. They're given issues to deal with -- distracting girlfriends, toughness, work ethic, health issues, overly emotional -- in an effort to humanize them.

There's something missing here in 'Glory' that prevents it from being a classic that I can't put my finger on. The history is generally portrayed accurately with some artistic license taken on how the games are portrayed. The movie scores are vastly different from some of the real-life games. Yeah yeah, I get it, drama over accuracy. As well, the basketball scenes feel rushed and much more like a 2006 style than a 1966 style. If I'm wrong so be it, but I don't think there was a lot of alley-oop dunks or off the backboard passes for throwdowns. Still, it's a good underdog story overall. If it doesn't rise to classic status, so be it.

Glory Road (2006): ***/****

Stolen

I can give credit when it's due. The overall quality might not be there, but Nicolas Cage churns out the flicks like one crazy dude. Since 2010, Cage has starred in nine movies, and according to his IMDB page, he's got six others in pre/post production and development. There's been some duds in the group, but there's some decent ones too. Take 2012's Stolen, nothing flashy but entertaining throughout.

An accomplished bank robber and thief, Will Montgomery (Cage) has created quite a reputation for himself to the point a New Orleans FBI officer, Tim Harlend (Danny Huston), has become obsessed with catching him. In the aftermath of a successful job, Montgomery is caught but refuses to give up where he hid the $10 million he made away with, also refusing to turn on the rest of his crew. He serves an eight-year sentence, and upon his release tries to reconnect with his daughter, Alison (Sami Gayle), but she is kidnapped by a member of his crew, Vincent (Josh Lucas), who has fallen on hard times and wants his share of the cut. Montgomery maintains he doesn't have the money, but now it's a matter of life and death. Can he find Alison in time before Vincent kills her? If not, can he pull off a job -- with the police and the FBI tailing him -- to steal enough to appease an insane Vincent? The clock is ticking.

Does the basic plot sound familiar? A man forced to rescue his kidnapped daughter from some rather nasty people? Yeah, it sure sounds like Taken to me too. It isn't spot-on of course with more than enough differences to make it interesting. The weird thing is how little a release it was given. IMDB reports it had a budget of around $35 million, but when it was released in September 2012, it was shown in only 141 theaters (major releases typically are shown on thousands of screens) and banked just $180,000. What happened? Were reviews that bad? Did studios have that little faith in it? I can't really find a reason. It's nothing crazy good by any means, but I liked it enough to give it a mild recommendation.

With the cast and crew assembled here, there's definitely potential for a solid action thriller, and to a point, I think 'Stolen' is very entertaining with some third act flaws. Director Simon West has shown he can do a solid action flick with films like The Mechanic, The Expendables 2, Con Air, Tomb Raiders, and this one is certainly in that vein. It barely breaks the 90-minute mark, clocking in at 95 minutes, and from the word 'Go' it never slows down. It's enjoyable because this breakneck speed never stops. Cage robs vault, goes to jail, is freed and then spends an hour-plus racing around New Orleans looking for his daughter. There are plot holes, but the pacing is so ridiculously fast that the problems are never around long enough to really be an issue. Beyond that, this movie isn't meant to rewrite the action thriller. Just sit back and enjoy it.

I don't know the exact year or the movie where Nicolas Cage went wrong, but at some point he went from an actor able to play drama, action, even dark comedy effortlessly to an actor who seems unable to do anything more than a caricature of himself. He has a scene with Lucas early on that goes down that over the top, goofy road, but thankfully it's just one scene. As an action hero, Cage handles himself quite well here. He's a good bad guy (He's a father! He can't be completely bad!) just trying to save his daughter. The over the top moments are kept to a minimum thankfully although there has to be at least six different scenes where Cage is running for all he's worth. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's because he's such a ridiculously slow runner, but couple it with his 110 percent effort at running so slowly, it's quite a visual. I got sidetracked, sorry. Moral of the story, but Cage is pretty good here.

I liked the rest of the cast too. Besides the goofy New Orleans jazz daddio hat he keeps wearing, Huston is pretty good as the FBI investigator trying to catch Montgomery while balancing out an odd admiration he has for the master thief. Mark Valley plays Fletcher, Harlend's assistant. Lucas gets to ham it up as Vincent, the thief seeking revenge. Maybe that's where Cage's caricature went, go figure. Montgomery's team includes Malin Akerman as Riley, the getaway driver, and M.C. Gainey as Hoyt, the electronics specialist.

Things do fall apart some in the final showdown between Montgomery and Vincent at an abandoned amusement park. 'Stolen' almost goes down a pretty dark road with its ending before tapping the brakes. Mostly though, it reminds me a lot of so many 1970s action crime thrillers that were packed to the gills with almost non-stop action. Credit to Mark Isham's jazzy, fast-paced score for keeping that action going. Good but not great, just a solid popcorn flick. Sit back and watch Cage race through New Orleans.

Stolen (2012): ** 1/2 /****