I’ve said before, I have a soft spot for based-on-a-true-story movies. I should have said ones that were done well. Unfortunately When the Game Stands Tall is not one of these. This film is about a high school football team, De La Salle in California, that lost their first game in 2004 after an unprecedented 151 game winning streak spanning 12 years. More than the streak and the subsequent loss, the movie is about the bond of the team and their coach, and what is important in life.
There are some nice points in the film. The penultimate game is pretty thrilling, and the final scenes do try to tug at the heart, but the directing is pretty poor, and the acting throughout subpar overall. The editing also seemed very disjointed to me, scenes ended and began very abruptly especially in the first half of the film, and the sorry soundtrack had a made for tv-like feel. This can be an ok watch-once kind of film, and with the faith element attached to it, I can see it being popular among a certain audience, but for most it will be a very lackluster and borderline boring movie.
Jons Movie Takes 