Rebound (2005)

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Rebound is a film where its prefix "re" can apply to a lot of adjectives used to describe the quality of the final product. For one, it's a retread of a formula that needs some reworking, and it's gotten to the point where the film industry should reconsider this unattractive and wholly uninteresting formula be retired.But why bother retiring a successful formula? Even though Rebound was a pretty hefty financial failure, the demand for these kinds of cheery, harmless family films is quite high. For one, they are the best kinds of babysitters, for they keep the little ones marginally silent for an hour or two and don't need much explaining, and secondly, they are so innocuous to the point where very few, if any, jokes, innuendos, or references need be explained. These kinds of films bathe in their own clichés, and usually drag the leading actor or actress down with their lackluster conduct.Rebound is unfortunately not an exception; it's a miserably safe affair, so much so that the jokes feel like they were rewritten a few times over in act of screen writing desensitization to make sure nothing dirty snuck through. You know the plot by simply looking at the film's poster, so there's not much purpose in reiterating its contents. Martin Lawrence plays Coach Roy McCormick, a once respected and dignified college basketball coach turned endorsement-mongering sellout, who gets kicked to the curb by the NCBA after his latest episode involves the death of the opposing team's mascot's pet bird, McCormick's manager (Breckin Meyer) is now scrambling to find McCormick some sort of coaching opportunity to which he responds to a request for a rag-tag, middle school basketball team by the name of the Mount Vernon Smelters, who haven't won a game in years, much to the principal's (Horatio Sanz) dismay. McCormick does the gig for free to show that he is in it for the kids and the love of the game, and it becomes unsurprising when we see McCormick actually develop a love and appreciation for the students of Mount Vernon Junior High School, in true, predictable film fashion.Even after summarizing the basic idea of the plot, the mean-spirit of the film's leading character just sticks out to me more. Here we have another leading male in a film who we are supposed to resonate with and support after he throws a colossal temper-tantrum and is passive-aggressive to a group of misfit tweens he is now forced to coach. If it wasn't the attitude on our lead character that was such a deal breaker to this film, the abundance of indifference is the nail in the coffin. Now, predictability doesn't always have to be a bad thing, for just because you predicted the ending or a certain plot-twist to a film shouldn't corrupt the surrounding elements of a movie entirely. However, when a film is erected from the ground-up on what seems to be nothing more than petty formula is when this becomes my main complaint.Rebound is one of those films; a film so content on striving for mediocrity that it manages to be almost instantaneously forgettable all around. Further mix in elements that come directly from The Bad News Bears to the point of almost being classifiable as a rip-off or plagiarism, to not developing any of the children Coach McCormick is sent to coach, and seal the deal with grating sentimentality at the end and you have the recipe for a disastrous and unsubstantial family affair. With the wealth of invaluable film entertainment geared towards families made only more readily accessible by Netflix and other streaming services, you'd be beyond foolish to settle for the incorrigible rehash that is Rebound.Starring: Martin Lawrence, Wendy Raquel Robinson, and Breckin Meyer. Directed by: Steve Carr.

College basketball coach Roy McCormick is a great coach but also known for his fiery reputation. When one of his outbursts sees the very public death of another college's animal mascot, McCormick finds himself banned from the league but with one chance to redeem himself if he can work the remainder of the season without any trouble. Problem is, nobody will hire him to give him that chance to prove himself worthy of challenging the ban, which leads him to his old high school who haven't won a single game for decades.I have checked so in 2005 I know we had the technology available to do this film a much easier way. What technology you ask? Well, to answer that you just need to look at the opening montages in the Oscars where Billy Crystal is inserted into the big films that year, or the adverts that feature dead stars in modern locations – essentially I guess it is a video version of Photoshop. For Rebound you see we could easily have accessed a handful of selected films, paid for the rights and left them alone with a team of digital editors for about two weeks and then there you have it. For the sports stuff we can go right to pretty much any family-friend basketball film that has comedy fat kids, cocky kids, a kid who "has talent but just needs the right leadership™" but who are a total bunch of losers but perhaps can pull it out for "the big game™". In regards of the rest of it, well, Lawrence certainly is not short of basic films where he plays the same character who learns lessons, makes smart remarks and, oh, hits it off with the sexy black single mom who originally disliked him for his arrogance but ultimately sees the good in him. If nothing else it would have been both an interesting technical project and a cutting commentary on modern family films if it had all been done by digital composite.Sadly for us, it is instead a whole new film that does everything that other films have do and aspires to do nothing different and, certainly, nothing better. All the genre boxes are ticked, all the obvious pieces of humour are wheeled out and the narrative (for what it is) goes where you know it will from the very start. The "wacky" music lets us know when we are supposed to laugh and all the cast pull faces whenever they get the chance to do so. Lawrence screams laziness in every aspect – whether it be his body or his performance it is clear he cannot be bothered. I write that as someone willing to forgive him because he is pretty funny when he is "on" but in this family rubbish I think he took getting to the set as doing enough. Robinson has a great body and forces herself into affection with Lawrence in the same way everybody else does in these things, whether it be her, Nia Long or whoever. The kids are actually reasonably OK as they have a more straightforward job to deliver; Williams is cool enough to carry the "good kid" role, Martin is a bit irritating but mainly due to his character, McElroy, Hoffman and the others fill in with solid comedy turns. Shawkat is a weird find for Arrested Development fans, but at least she is amusing even if you cannot help feel it must have pained her to go from that to this. Correa-McMullen turns in a similarly solid "I'll do what is required" performance but is sadly more notable now for being killed in a gang-related shooting not long after this film came out.Other than that tragic footnote though, there is nothing else of particular note about Rebound. It could easily have been other films run together because all it does is tick all the genre boxes without bringing anything new to the party. It is worse than that actually because, in accepting the basics as its all, it is not only mediocre but it mostly wallows in its mediocrity to the point where it offers nothing for adults and only very base entertainment for young children.

This movie is wacko.Is a story not so good. I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it.I didn't like it. Story line = 0 Music = 0 Martin Lawrence = 10 / = still awful

College basketball coach Roy McCormick is almost banned for life due to his aggressive behavior, but as his agent finds a clause in the rules that he must have another chance first, he ends up training a middle school team, the Mount Vernon Junior High School Smelters. As those movies go, after a few confrontations everyone works together to become champions. Add a love interest for the coach and some diversity in the characters of the team.One of the more funny scenes involves shy Wes and over-assertive Big Mac (this time not meant as a product placement I hope) ending up in a romance. Another thing well done is the way the coach instructs his team. Like in Coach Carter he takes time to learn the middle school team about passing, communication and rebounding. Martin Lawrence tries hard but lacks the comedy skills Eddie Murphy has. He even plays more than one character like Murphy did in Coming to America.Most Hollywood movies only get a bad treatment just because they are made in Hollywood. But Rebound gives those Hollywood-haters exactly the ammo they wish, as it is the kind of formulaic movie that has not a shred of intelligent writing, storytelling, directing or acting to be fond of (and being a kid's movie is not an excuse for that). The story has been told so many times that Rebound is boring to the extreme, as there is total predictability.