.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

It's hard to believe that a story like We Are Marshall had yet to receive the Hollywood red carpet treatment. For an inspirational sports tale, you would be hard pressed to find a more compelling story than the account of the 1970 University of Marshall team that perished in a frightful plane crash and how the town rallied behind a their new team the following year.

Without even taking dramatic license, the story sounds like a Disney tear-jerker.

So what happened?

The tear-jerking is still there. In fact it is almost forced upon us with various 'Remember the Marshall's' speeches. Even when the plane crashes with hardly a character we have come to invest our interest, the reaction of the townspeople who grieve, cry and hug put lumps in my throat (well, it might have been the overstuffed hand of popcorn that I tried to shove down my mouth, but you get the point).

The football scenes are there. People get hit, thrown while they catch balls and fall to the ground as good as any other football movie in the past ten years - Friday Night Lights setting the standard.

The rallying is there too. People show up in mass to support the team. First in support of the almost cancelled program, then at the first home game where the result should not be in doubt.

So what happened?

Even the good looking actors were there to lend their support to director McG (Charlie's Angels) vision. Matthew McConaughey and Matthew Fox (TV's Lost) do their best in polyester to smile and smirk at the camera to remind us that even in tragedy, sexy men are still sexy men.

So what happened? Easy, Friday Night Lights, Remember the Titans, Miracle, Invincible, Gridiron Gang, Rudy, Hoosiers….happened. We have been inundated with sports movies that all have interchangeable parts. There is the letdown, the takeover usually in the form of a new coach, the training camp and then the one game that will have us leaving the theatre inspired. They are as formula as any Friday the 13th entry.

This doesn't make We Are Marshall a bad movie. It just makes it about fifteen years too late.