Basketball Movie Review
Rebound
Martin Lawrence gets demoted from big-time college coach to middle-school basketball and discovers that screaming at children is not technically a complete system.
Straight down the middle family-sports formula, but useful catalogue comfort food for younger hoopers and anyone raised on mid-2000s DVD rentals.
Movie details
2005 · 1h 26m · Comedy · Family
Director Steve Carr
- Martin Lawrence — Roy McCormick
- Wendy Raquel Robinson — Jeanie Ellis
- Breckin Meyer — Tim Fink
- Steve Carr directed Rebound, with Martin Lawrence playing college coach Roy McCormick after a public meltdown sends him back to his old middle school.
- The 2005 film runs 86 minutes and was built as a family basketball comedy around a junior-varsity coaching redemption story.
01
The Take
Rebound is the Bad News Bears template in basketball shoes. Roy McCormick starts as an ego with a whistle, gets knocked down the coaching ladder and has to learn that a middle-school team cannot be treated like a prop in his comeback story. You know every major beat before it arrives, but the movie is comfortable living there.
02
Does the Basketball Hold Up?
The basketball is simple and youth-focused: fundamentals, confidence, team roles and learning to compete without being humiliated. It is not remotely a tactical film, but it at least understands that improvement for young players has to look different from professional coaching theatre.
03
Best Basketball Moment
The team finally executing together instead of waiting for the coach's personality to solve everything, which is the one basketball lesson the movie earns cleanly.
04
Ball Cred
The premise is entirely coaching-driven, with Martin Lawrence's disgraced college coach forced to rebuild his reputation through a middle-school team rather than a professional fantasy.