Rebote

"Rebound" is a Comedy - Sport movie in which we watch a college basketball coach being demoted to junior varsity team. He has to deal with it and make the difference if he wants to recreate what he destroyed with his previous public meltdown.

I think that "Rebound" is another classic comedy movie without anything new. It's just a nice, funny comedy movie to spend your time with. It has a simple but funny plot, well presented by Steve Carr who is the director of this film. The interpretations of Martin Lawrence who played as Roy McCormick / Preacher Don and Wendy Raquel Robinson who played as Jeanie Ellis were good and the combination of their characters with all the differences worked very well. All in all, I have to say that "Rebound" is a nice movie to spend your time with because I am sure you will laugh a lot and yo will find it interesting.

If Hollywood wants to know why theater attendance is off they need look no further than this movie. The problem is not they are making bad movies, they're simply making movies you feel ripped off for having paid ten bucks to see. Once you get over the shock that you've paid too much for what you're seeing, Rebound is actually a good little movie.

Rebound tells the story of Coach Ray, a highly paid NCAA basketball coach who ends up banned from coaching for bad behavior. With no other options open to him he ends up coaching back at his old junior high school where things take mostly predictable, but enjoyable turns. For example the team is so bad at basketball it hasn't won a game in twelve years, and is made up of the typical assortment of kids who don't know left from right, so even though you know whats going to happen but you don't mind because Lawrence and the kids are fun to watch. And while it strives and fails to be a Bad News Bears of basketball, it is an enjoyable movie on its own terms. Just wait for DVD or cable, because paying 10 bucks a head to see this will spoil your enjoyment of whats a nice funny little movie.

So bad it's scary flick that I suppose is pleasant enough for the youngest age groups, but the rest of us will suffer unspeakable pains sitting through this deflated dud. Martin Lawrence is a highly successful college basketball coach who has lost touch with the game and his players. A freak accident at one of his games is the last straw as he is banned from coaching the collegiate ranks and then decides to take a job at his old junior high school (being sent a fax by players without consent from administration, go figure!?). Soon the usual sports underdog story takes place with predictable and tiring results. Lawrence has been hit and miss (usually miss) in more adult-oriented flicks, but he looks like he is just trying to make a quick buck here. The kids are totally forgettable and the rest of the cast is unaccomplished and basically have no business in cinematic features. Plays like one of those Disney Network television movies. Hopelessly terrible air ball. 2 stars out of 5.

College basketball coach Roy McCormick is a great coach but also known for his fiery reputation. When one of his outbursts sees the very public death of another college's animal mascot, McCormick finds himself banned from the league but with one chance to redeem himself if he can work the remainder of the season without any trouble. Problem is, nobody will hire him to give him that chance to prove himself worthy of challenging the ban, which leads him to his old high school who haven't won a single game for decades.

I have checked so in 2005 I know we had the technology available to do this film a much easier way. What technology you ask? Well, to answer that you just need to look at the opening montages in the Oscars where Billy Crystal is inserted into the big films that year, or the adverts that feature dead stars in modern locations – essentially I guess it is a video version of Photoshop. For Rebound you see we could easily have accessed a handful of selected films, paid for the rights and left them alone with a team of digital editors for about two weeks and then there you have it. For the sports stuff we can go right to pretty much any family-friend basketball film that has comedy fat kids, cocky kids, a kid who "has talent but just needs the right leadership™" but who are a total bunch of losers but perhaps can pull it out for "the big game™". In regards of the rest of it, well, Lawrence certainly is not short of basic films where he plays the same character who learns lessons, makes smart remarks and, oh, hits it off with the sexy black single mom who originally disliked him for his arrogance but ultimately sees the good in him. If nothing else it would have been both an interesting technical project and a cutting commentary on modern family films if it had all been done by digital composite.

Sadly for us, it is instead a whole new film that does everything that other films have do and aspires to do nothing different and, certainly, nothing better. All the genre boxes are ticked, all the obvious pieces of humour are wheeled out and the narrative (for what it is) goes where you know it will from the very start. The "wacky" music lets us know when we are supposed to laugh and all the cast pull faces whenever they get the chance to do so. Lawrence screams laziness in every aspect – whether it be his body or his performance it is clear he cannot be bothered. I write that as someone willing to forgive him because he is pretty funny when he is "on" but in this family rubbish I think he took getting to the set as doing enough. Robinson has a great body and forces herself into affection with Lawrence in the same way everybody else does in these things, whether it be her, Nia Long or whoever. The kids are actually reasonably OK as they have a more straightforward job to deliver; Williams is cool enough to carry the "good kid" role, Martin is a bit irritating but mainly due to his character, McElroy, Hoffman and the others fill in with solid comedy turns. Shawkat is a weird find for Arrested Development fans, but at least she is amusing even if you cannot help feel it must have pained her to go from that to this. Correa-McMullen turns in a similarly solid "I'll do what is required" performance but is sadly more notable now for being killed in a gang-related shooting not long after this film came out.

Other than that tragic footnote though, there is nothing else of particular note about Rebound. It could easily have been other films run together because all it does is tick all the genre boxes without bringing anything new to the party. It is worse than that actually because, in accepting the basics as its all, it is not only mediocre but it mostly wallows in its mediocrity to the point where it offers nothing for adults and only very base entertainment for young children.

I went with one of my best friends to see this with her family. Martin Lawrence kept you laughing. We literally giggled the entire time. And the her family behind us (her two brothers, 11 and 5, and cousins 7 and 10, and mom 42)...DON'T GET ME STARTED! If you enjoy a clean, funny movie for the family, this is a great one to choose. Actually, the basketball team reminded me of my own at school! (haha...we're pitiful! :S) But we really enjoyed it, and I encourage any of you that haven't seen it, it's a good one for the family. Sure, it would probably been more of a hit on Disney Channel as an Original Movie, but it kept you interested and laughing.