The Rockuary: Gridiron Gang

Because inter-city thugs pull at the heart strings

In this installment of "The Rockuary" we get to finally see the beginnings of potential for Dwayne Johnson.  And while this movie isn't necessarily good in a conventional sense, it is a pretty good movie based on what it was trying to do.  Now, when I think of "Gridiron Gang," another movie that is similar to this comes to mind.  If anyone knows the line of thought that I'm going to, I'm talking of course about "Remember the Titans."  They have similar plots, they have similar type of characters, they have similar messages.  The difference being that in "Remember the Titans" (2000) their central focus was on de-segregation, and it had ties with the Civil Rights Movement, "Gridiron Gang" (2006) deals more about de-criminalization, and gang wars.

While I personally think that "Remember the Titans" is the stronger of the two movies, "Gridiron Gang" did get some things right.  In this movie, Dwayne Johnson plays Sean Porter who works at the Kilpatrick Detention Center in Los Angeles.  Which I think is a good way to introduce his character, as Dwayne is believable as a Detention Officer.  Having been frustrated at the fact that he's not able to help kids get away from their problems, (i.e. gang wars, drugs, robbery, etc) he decides to create a football team to allow the kids to feel like they're a part of something better.  Why football?  I don't really know, but I suppose it would be better than say, half-naked volleyball or something ridiculous like that. 

(Which leads me to wonder why baseball is America's pass time, when more people like football to begin with.  Meh, I'm over thinking it.)

Porter believes that football and teamwork will teach the teenage inmates what it takes to be responsible, mature, and winners.  So he picks several inmates that he feels will benefit from his program and requires that they practice with him the following day.  He tells his team, "You are all losers, but if you stick to this program, you could all be winners at the end."  And there is a practice session that is mildly funny that not one inmate knows how to spell the word "Mustangs" which is the name of their team.  Two of the team members do not get along, as they are members of rival gangs.  Willie Weathers is from the 88's, and Kelvin Owens is from the 95's. 

88's and 95's?  I'm just going to assume that these are street numbers, otherwise, these are stupid ass gang names.  I mean, I don't know much about gang nomenclature, or gang histories, but you have to admit these are pretty stupid fucking names for street toughs.  But, for the sake of the movie, and because it's doing so well so far, I'mma let this slide.

So, after they've had practice, they think they're ready for their first game, which is against the best team in the league, Barrington.  And for the first few minutes of the game, things are going well for the Mustangs.  They recover a fumble, and they're feeling rather good about themselves, but things quickly turn for our inter-city rapscallions.  They are totally annihilated by Barrington losing by 38 points.  (Like the Broncos... ...too soon?)  And after being on a 0-2 losing streak, the Mustangs finally win a game as they start to learn to work together as a team.  Kelvin and Willie even shake hands at the end of a game when they finally start to respect one another when they win their first game after Kelvin makes a crucial block for Willie to score the winning touchdown.

But not everything is all roses and faerie farts.  One of Willie's gang friends, Free, stops by the field and realizes that Kelvin is a 95.  Kelvin and Free get into a fight, and Free shoots him in the shoulder.  As free prepares to put another bullet in Kelvin's head, Willie tackles Free to the ground to save Kelvin's life.  Free is shocked that Willie would help a 95, as the police arrives.  He fires at the cops, and the cops retaliate killing Free in the process.  Although Kelvin survives the attack, he is unable to play in the playoffs. 

In the next game against Barrington, the Mustangs are down 14-0, because of their demoralization of losing Kelvin.  But Willie makes an inspirational and motivating speech... because all football movies need one... and they go out and beat Barrington.  There is then a narration by Dwayne in the form of a voice-over, because sports movies tend to have one of those as well, explaining that the Mustangs lost the championship game 17-14, but no one called them losers.  And it turns out that most of the inmates who were in the program had gone on to better things.

The movie ends with the "next class" of Mustangs, training and unable to spell Mustangs.  And it wraps up pretty nicely.

As said before, I think that "Remember the Titans" is the stronger, better movie.  But "Gridiron Gang" was cohesive, it flowed and paced very nicely, and it wasn't saying more than it was meant to say.  It wasn't pretentious, it had a comprehensive narrative, and while it did stick with several cliches that sort of made me want to internally groan, and didn't really add anything new to the "problematic kid and sports" genre, it did present itself rather admirably.  I didn't have any major problems with the movie, save the gang names thing... so on a scale from one to Super Mega Awesome, I'm going to rate this movie as "Enjoyably Good."

Tune in next time when The Infraggable Tony-Reviews presents "The Rockuary: Reno 911: Miami"