Curtis Plummer (Ice Cube) -- a down-on-his-luck former high school football star -- turns his niece, Jasmine (Keke Palmer), into the quarterback of the local team, the Minden Browns, and gets his stride back when he becomes the team coach. With Curtis as their new leader and their pigtail-wearing star player, this team of misfits wins its way to the Pop Warner Super Bowl and the small city of Minden, Illinois, is ignited with team spirit, town pride and the glory it once knew.
The Longshots tells the true story of Jasmine Plummer who, at the age of eleven, became the first female to play in Pop Warner football tournament in its 56-year history, but that's not the biggest surprise here. It's the fact that this pretty good lil football movie was directed by none other than "Limp Bizkit" frontman Fred Durst. That's right! Fred Durst! And the truth of the matter is that he does a pretty damn good job. Keke Palmer shines as Jasmine, the normal bookwormy outcast who just happens to have a good throwing arm. Where most sports movies would make this seem sappy, it was done just right here. When Jasmine's mother (Tasha Smith) needs a babysitter at the last minute she asks Curtis to step up and be the uncle that Jasmine deserves. We've all had a Curtis in our lives at one time or another, grumpy as all hell and just wants to be left alone, but also has a good heart and that comes out when he starts to coach Jasmine. He even loses more of his grumpy exterior when he catches the eye of Jasmine's teacher, Ms. Macer (Jill Marie Jones). Once Jasmine is ready for the team you DO get the little cliche of "Girls don't belong on a football field", but that's to be expected. Once she proves how wrong they are, everyone is gung-ho. It's good to see that Durst didn't follow the sappy football cliches any further, because in the end Jasmine and her teammates (the Minden Browns) don't win the big game. Which is a lot more believable because lets face it, you can't win them all, but this one won my heart. This is one to see, so please do. A hearty 4 on my "Go See" scale.
The Longshots tells the true story of Jasmine Plummer who, at the age of eleven, became the first female to play in Pop Warner football tournament in its 56-year history, but that's not the biggest surprise here. It's the fact that this pretty good lil football movie was directed by none other than "Limp Bizkit" frontman Fred Durst. That's right! Fred Durst! And the truth of the matter is that he does a pretty damn good job. Keke Palmer shines as Jasmine, the normal bookwormy outcast who just happens to have a good throwing arm. Where most sports movies would make this seem sappy, it was done just right here. When Jasmine's mother (Tasha Smith) needs a babysitter at the last minute she asks Curtis to step up and be the uncle that Jasmine deserves. We've all had a Curtis in our lives at one time or another, grumpy as all hell and just wants to be left alone, but also has a good heart and that comes out when he starts to coach Jasmine. He even loses more of his grumpy exterior when he catches the eye of Jasmine's teacher, Ms. Macer (Jill Marie Jones). Once Jasmine is ready for the team you DO get the little cliche of "Girls don't belong on a football field", but that's to be expected. Once she proves how wrong they are, everyone is gung-ho. It's good to see that Durst didn't follow the sappy football cliches any further, because in the end Jasmine and her teammates (the Minden Browns) don't win the big game. Which is a lot more believable because lets face it, you can't win them all, but this one won my heart. This is one to see, so please do. A hearty 4 on my "Go See" scale.
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