Full Ride (2002)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Just perfect...

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The make -or-break of a love story for me is whether or not I like the characters and also if they click with each other. Matt is pretty unlikeable: aloof, braggart, seemingly lazy, and a misogynist. He's been hurt badly by his dysfunctional mom and this makes him a little easier to take. I guess I liked the details of his dysfunction--he was believable. He overcompensates by bragging that he'l nail Amy. He acts so cool around Amy that he strikes out twice. When they do talk he can't show her who he really is. She empathizes and then stonewalls him at just the right moments. She seems so mature and strong that the traits of hers that come out later didn't seem to fit. (For me.) I found her to be incredibly sexy and pretty, . . . girl next door pretty, I call it. So I was going to like this movie unless it really screwed up.Funny things happen with the coach, but Matt's relationship with the other coach was inspiring. The football scenes at the end were perplexing. Matt doesn't carry the ball but seems to be a blocking back. Folks, he isn't the right size! He's fifty pounds too light for that position. But I thought his acting was skilled. I measure that by the way I wanted to wring his neck a couple of times during his scenes with Meredith Monroe. The film was all right. Meredith M was better than all right.

I took Film History and Appreciation class with Mark Hoeger, the director of this movie, last semester, and I have to say I expected much more out of one of his movies. The movie had potential but really was ruined because of a few things.First of all, the screenplay was simply not well-written. Besides the storyline being a long series of cliches and predictable attempts at "plot twists" the dialogue was totally unconvincing. Some of the lines were great (the one about giving a girl "both inches" made me laugh), but too often there were lines written in that just didn't seem to fit. Some of the lines just didn't make sense at all.Also, the acting was bad even by WB standards, with a few exceptions. I liked Meredith Monroe as the love interest, but basically the rest of the cast was typical WB crap. The actors delivered their lines totally unconvincingly at every chance they got, and at no point did I ever believe that a guy with pubes on his chin could get a girl that hot to even talk to him. Only a few of the football players were big, strong, quick, good, or mean enough to play football on a halfway decent high school team in Nebraska, let alone to play in an all-star type game.Finally, most football movies have lots of great action shots during the games, but the game footage was slow and boring. Off the field there were way too many shots of the scenery. If they put those shots in to bore the viewers, they succeeded. For most of the movie I was bored out of my skull, and the only interesting part of watching the movie was trying to pick out places I had seen before and people I knew.I really wish I had something really good to say about this movie. It lacked any imagination or talent, and was flawed in many many ways. In other words, it's a great WB movie.

I first saw this film as a world premiere on the WB network. At first it looks like this film is just going to be another mindless romp into the world of teenage soaps. And if that is what you are after this film will not fail to satisfy.It has a pretty Meredith Monroe, a Dawson's Creek veteran and a gorgeous Riley Smith, who first caught many a young girl's eye in the Disney Channel Classic, MOTOCROSSED but has lately been getting meatier roles like his recently recurring role on the Fox series "24" and a nice role opposite Ed Harris and Cuba Gooding, Jr. in RADIO.Just when you think you have this film figured out, it takes some very interesting twists. I don't want to give away secrets if you have not seen it but nobody turns out to be whom you thought they were. Like the SIXTH SENSE this is not a cheap shot. Once you learn what is really going on you think back and realize the first parts make even more sense. A friend of mine in the UK has seen it several times on satellite. She says the more you watch it the better it gets. Having seen it just once, I can't wait to watch again knowing what I know now. I will probably watch it more than once just to see Riley.

A talented high school graduating senior with a bad attitude is forced to play in the state all-star high school football game. When he meets and falls for an attractive local girl she helps him realize he has a shot at a 'full ride' scholarship if he plays well.All too often, these dramas fall into formulaic traps and tell the same old story of a troubled and confused teen. FULL RIDE's Matt Sabo certainly fits this profile, but below the surface is a much more unique individual than we usually see in this genre. Matt is the center of the action and he is a realistic teenager, both over-confident and vulnerable, optimistic and cynical by turns. Influenced by Amy, Matt grows into a man of character and heart. He, in turn, forms friendships with his teammates, which influences his growth as an athlete and as a team player.FULL RIDE has all the elements we love to see in a movie--great acting, admirable characters, exciting sports scenes, poignant drama, and a love story. Still, while one may have seen these elements in other films, FULL RIDE is assisted by performances that are sincere and occasionally, even moving. Perhaps what's most impressive about FULL RIDE is its sense of reality. Although the author of the previous comment would seem to disagree, (clearly a disgruntled student who, for quite obvious reasons, received a poor grade in his film class) director Mark Hoeger grounds the film in a believable situation and location and does a great job of getting down to the grit of what life is like in a small town. These characters are real people rooted in realistic situations, which often create the most compelling entertainment. On one level it is a love story, on another it is a character study, and yet another it is a simple football film. All of these ideas come together to form a cohesive vehicle.