The Longshots (2008) Movie Review

Formulaic, tired, and for sure something that we have all seen before in a inspiring sports movie, The Longshots still has good intentions and the likeable presence of Ice Cube and upcoming star Keke Palmer. The film is inspired by the true story of an 11-year old girl from Illinois, who was the first girl to play quarterback in the Pop Warner national championship game.

The film takes place in Minden, Illinois, though the film was shot in Minden, Louisiana and follows the lonely middle school student of Jasmine (Keke Palmer). Minden is a tight knit small town that has hit an all time low financially ever since a local factory closed and left many of the community unemployed. Included as one of the factory’s lay offs is Jasmine uncle Curtis Plummer (Ice Cube), who spends his days moping, drinking, and carrying around a football to relieve his high school playing days. After Jasmine’s mother picks up more work to cover the expenses, she asks Curtis to watch after each afternoon, in which he reluctantly accepts. With the bookworm Jasmine and the lazy Curtis the two clash over everything, but find a similarity in each other once they start to throw the football around. Curtis teaches Jasmine how the throw like a poised quarterback within a few weeks and begs the local football coach (Matt Craven) to give her a try out despite being a girl. Thinking that Curtis is insane at first, Jasmine’s natural talent is quickly endeared by the coach as she works her way into being the starting quarterback in a all-male football world. Trials and tribulations ensue for Jasmine’s new talent as well as when the local media attention brings back her no-go father back to Minden.

Limp Bizkit’s lead man Fred Durst surprisingly takes the reigns as director for this family sports film. Durst very simply directs the film from one scene to another with nothing flashy or engulfing. In fact, his work nearly comes across as dull. The choices by Durst and writer Nick Santora are cliché and typical for a film of this nature. However, the story itself does inspire and does have its heart in the right place. The Longshots is also a pretty clean film that can reach out to all ages, and works well as a family drama focusing on the relationship between Curtis and Jasmine rather than the football side of the film. One choice by Durst that was smart on his part is capturing the community culture of the small Minden town, without falling into the usual stereotypical or racism trap of putting characters at odd. There is some sexism towards Jasmine, which is to be expected with her stepping in to the masculine world of football, but it is not terribly over the top.

The film hinders of its two leads, Ice Cube and Keke Palmer, who work well off of each other in each of their many scenes. Ice Cube and his Cube Vision Productions (which did produce this film) has delivered more tame and family oriented films over the past few years (Are We There Yet?, First Sunday), rather than foul-mouthed, violent movies (Friday, All About the Benjamins) that the rapper-turned-actor churned out in his earlier years. Ice Cube has grown as an actor and as a producer and the family fare is a welcomed commodity to his repertoire. On the other hand, Palmer is a star in the making and at only 15 years old, the sky is the limit for this young talent. The camera loves her and she has terrific range as a teenage performer, lets hope she begins to get more and more projects to further her career.

The Longshots is a typical family sports film that is predictable from beginning to end. However, it has two identifiable lead actors and story that is inspiring, even though it may be a little drained in the genre.