Director:
Phil Joanou
Starring:
The Rock ………. Sean Porter
Xzibit ………. Malcolm Moore
L. Scott Caldwell ………. Bobbi Porter
Leon Rippy ………. Paul Higga
Kevin Dunn ………. Ted Dexter
The Movie
There have been many “classic” movies starring professional wrestlers. Who could forget Mr. Nanny, Thunder in Paradise I, II, and III with Hulk Hogan, or Body Slam with Roddy Piper and Captain Lou Albano? More recently wrestling stars such as Kane, John Cena, and Triple H have tried their hand at acting. Movies starring wrestlers usually work best when the wrestlers are not actually the “star” of the movie. The reason for that is that most wrestlers can’t actually act. There seems to be at least one exception by name of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, though.
The Rock stars as Sean Porter, a former college football star who is now a probation officer at a juvenile detention center called Camp Kilpatrick. Porter is frustrated by the 75% recidivism rate of the teenage felons at the camp. Most of teenagers that get released from this detention center either end up dead on the streets or get sent right back in after a week or two. He decides to form a football team at the camp. Porter believes that football will teach the young inmates about responsibility, working a team, and becoming winners for the first time in their lives. Porter and fellow probation officer, Malcolm Moore (Xzibit), become the coaches of the team and they have only 4 weeks to get a team together before their first game. Before these kids can unite as a team, though, they have to give up their gang loyalities and look past their rivalries from the streets.
On the surface, this movie seems to be another”underdogs-overcome-adversity” football movie. This isn’t just another football movie, though. It’s not really about football at all. Football is just a tool to use to try and change these kids for the better. Porter and Moore try to make a difference in these kids lives. The underlying theme of this movie is giving troubled teens a second chance at life when they never really had a chance to begin with.
The Rock has showed in past movies like Be Cool and The Scorpion King that he can perform well in both comedic roles and action roles. This is the first time where he really had to perform well in a dramatic role, though. For the most part, he pulled it off extremely well. Even though he is the “star” of the movie, he doesn’t steal the show. The kids in this movie really steal the show. Everyone of them are mostly unknown actors. We find out in the extras that most of them have never acted before, and have actually been in real gangs. They do a tremendous job of making this movie as real as possible. Xzibit is not half-bad either as the second lead of this movie.
This movie is based on a true story. The real Sean Porter and Malcolm Moore were on hand during the filming to make sure everything was kept at real as possible. To add to the realism, this movie was mostly shot at the actual Camp Kilpatrick, that still houses juvenile inmates to this day. Make no mistake about it, this is not a “family” film. It’s real and raw. There are scenes in the beginning, middle, and end of the movie that are extremely violent, but real.
Gridiron Gang is not an entirely original movie. It’s full of cliches. It’s a true story that is portrayed as real as possible. This realism really takes this movie to another level and moves it past the many cliches in the movie. The Rock proves once again that he is a versatile and charismatic actor, who can portray many roles. He has definitely become a breakout star and soon may actually be known for his acting skills rather than his wrestling and football skills. It certainly won’t shock and surprise you, but Gridiron Gang has heart and you certainly will be entertained from beginning to end.
The Video:
The video is given in 1.33:1 fullscreen color. From what I saw, it was nothing special. No real problems either, though. Just as good as you expect.
The Audio:
The audio included is available in either English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound, English Stereo 2.0 Surround sound, or French Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround sound. There are subtitles available in English and French. No problems here either, but yet nothing groundbreaking.
The Extras:
Audio Commentary –
This commentary is with the director, Phil Joanou, and the screenwriter, Jeff Maguire. They talk more about some of the “behind-the-scenes” stuff of the movie. Pretty standard stuff here. It would have been nice to have The Rock in on this as well, but this is fairly entertaining as it is.
The Rock Takes the Field Featurette –
This is a short featurette that is all about The Rock as Sean Porter putting on the football pads and playing football against one of the kids, Willie Weathers. The Rock was excited to put on the pads again and it was cool to see him actually play football, since you have only heard him talk about playing football in the past.
“Football Training” Featurette –
This is all about the actual football training that the kids in the movie went through. They brought in a football coordinator named Allan Graf to teach these kids how to play football basically. He compares this to a rookie going to a pro football camp. They taught them plays and went through full-contact drills every day. It’s pretty interesting to see all of the training and everyone talking about it including the kids, Xzibit, and The Rock.
Phil Joanou Profile –
This featurette talks all about the director of the movie, Phil Joanou. Why he liked this script and why he decided to do this movie. Everyone talks about his role in the movie as well. Phil also talks about working with the unknown actors and various other things. Fairly interesting piece.
Deleted Scenes –
These have an option to hear commentary from Phil Joanou (director) and Jeff Maguire (screenwriter). They tell you the reasons why each scene was cut from the movie. Mostly these were all cut to move the movie along quicker or because they hurt the overall story and/or characters. There are actually some funny scenes in here, where they show the football team not acting like a team at all. There is also more scenes with Xzibit that got cut for mainly time issues. Worth checking these out for that.
Multi-Angle Football Scene –
There are five sequences that are presented in a multi-angle format. You can view each sequence from different camera angles using your DVD remote. This is okay. You aren’t missing anything, if you don’t watch this. It is neat to see the different angles presented, though.
If you are looking to watch a football movie, then you may be disappointed. Football is just in the background of this movie. It’s more about the troubled teens in the movie and how Sean Porter and Malcom Moore taught them to be a team and friends on the field when they would naturally be enemies otherwise. It’s definitely worth checking out with a rental, but it’s entertaining and real enough to recommend a purchase as well.
