The Longshots | |
---|---|
Directed by | Fred Durst |
Written by |
|
Produced by |
|
Starring | |
Cinematography | Conrad W. Hall |
Edited by | Jeffrey Wolf |
Music by | Teddy Castellucci |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | The Weinstein Company [1] Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [1] |
Release date |
|
Running time | 95 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $23 million [2] |
Box office | $11.8 million [1] |
The Longshots is a 2008 American sports comedy-drama film directed by Fred Durst, based on the real life events of Jasmine Plummer, the first girl to participate in the Pop Warner football tournament with the Harvey Colts led by head coach Richard Brown Jr. The film stars Ice Cube and Keke Palmer, their second film together after Barbershop 2: Back in Business , and was released on August 22, 2008.
Minden, Illinois, is a former factory town with a failing economy and a pathetic football team that no one believes in. Curtis Plummer, a washed-up former football player, returns home broke and directionless until he meets his niece Jasmine, the daughter of his no-good brother Roy. Jasmine has worn her father's watch ever since he left five years ago in the hopes that he will one day return. Her mother Claire asks Curtis to take care of Jasmine after school as she is too busy with her job at the local diner. Curtis realizes Jasmine has a talent for throwing a football, which he nurtures into a passion for the game. He then persuades her to try out for the town's Pop Warner football team, the Minden Browns, because he thinks it would be good for her. The team, including the coach, are against admitting a female player, but Jasmine's abilities gain her a spot on the team. However, the coach deliberately keeps her on the bench. In the fourth game, after much prodding from Curtis, the coach puts Jasmine in the game, and although the Browns lose, everyone said they could have won if she had played from the beginning. Jasmine is then assigned as the starting quarterback and the Minden Browns quickly become a winning team.
Everything is going great until Coach Fisher suffers a heart attack, and the assistant coach asks Curtis to step in as a replacement for the last two games. He hesitates at first, still haunted by his past failures, but is eventually talked into it. The Browns win the two games and are able to go to the Pop Warner Super Bowl in Miami Beach. Roy suddenly shows up to meet them, having seen his daughter play on TV. Claire and Curtis are both unhappy and suspicious about his return, but Jasmine is ecstatic, convinced that Roy finally wants to be a part of her life.
The Browns are nearly forced to skip the Super Bowl due to a lack of money, but are able to raise enough from the town; even Curtis pitches in by donating the last of his life savings. Jasmine plays poorly in the first half when Roy does not show up to watch. Curtis talks her through her feelings and the Browns rally for the second half. They lose the game after a teammate drops the ball on the last play, but everyone is glad nonetheless that for the first time, the Browns made it to the championship. Jasmine finally confronts her deadbeat father and returns his watch, cutting him out of her life for good and accepting Curtis as the father figure she always wanted.
The film was shot mostly in northwestern Louisiana, with the majority being in the small city of Minden. It was filmed at Minden High School and the Webster Parish Alternative School. The "Super Bowl" was filmed in Shreveport, Louisiana at Calvary Baptist Academy.
The Longshots was released on DVD on December 2, 2008. It opened at #18 at the DVD sales chart, selling 143,000 units for revenue of $2,858,950. By January 2009, 471,000 DVD units had been sold, translating to $11 million in revenue. [3]
The Longshots opened on August 22, 2008 and grossed $4,080,687 in its opening week. It flopped at the box office, grossing $11,767,866 worldwide, on a $23 million budget.
The Longshots received mixed reviews. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 41% based on 71 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Longshots means well, but it's a largely formulaic affair, rarely deviating from the inspirational sports movie playbook." [4] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [5] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
Ruthe Stein of San Francisco Chronicle opined that Keke Palmer's "winning manner and incandescent smile" made her "a perfect fit" for her role in the film. [6]
Kurtis Eugene Warner is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons, primarily with the St. Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals. An undrafted free agent, Warner ascended from the Arena Football League and NFL Europe to become a two-time Most Valuable Player and a Super Bowl MVP. Warner appeared in three Super Bowls as a starting quarterback and is one of very few quarterbacks to lead multiple franchises to a Super Bowl. His career is widely regarded as one of the greatest Cinderella stories in NFL history.
Matthew Stephen Leinart is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for seven seasons. He played college football for the USC Trojans, where he won the Heisman Trophy and led his team to an undefeated season as a junior. Selected tenth overall by the Arizona Cardinals in the 2006 NFL Draft, Leinart primarily served as Kurt Warner's backup for four seasons. He spent his final three seasons in a backup role for the Houston Texans and the Oakland Raiders. Leinart was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2017.
The Pacifier is a 2005 American family action comedy film directed by Adam Shankman, written by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant and stars Vin Diesel. After a failed rescue mission, Navy SEAL Shane Wolfe is assigned as babysitter to the dead man's family.
Varsity Blues is a 1999 American coming-of-age sports comedy-drama film directed by Brian Robbins that follows a small-town high school football team through a tumultuous season, in which the players must deal with the pressures of adolescence and their football-obsessed community while having their overbearing coach constantly on their back. In the small fictional town of West Canaan, Texas, football is a way of life and losing is not an option. The film drew a domestic box office gross of $52 million against its estimated $16 million budget despite mixed critical reviews. The film has since gone on to become a cult film.
Aquamarine is a 2006 American-Australian teen fantasy romantic comedy film directed by Elizabeth Allen, loosely based on the 2001 young adult novel of the same name by Alice Hoffman. It stars Emma Roberts, Joanna "JoJo" Levesque, and Sara Paxton in the title role. The film was released in the United States on March 3, 2006, by 20th Century Fox.
Little Giants is a 1994 American family sports comedy film directed by Duwayne Dunham and written by James Ferguson, Robert Shallcross, Tommy Swerdlow, Michael Goldberg from the story by Ferguson and Robert Shallcross. The film stars Rick Moranis and Ed O'Neill as Danny and Kevin O'Shea, two brothers living in a small Ohio town who coach rival Pee-Wee Football teams. The film was produced by Amblin Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros. under their Warner Bros. Family Entertainment label.
Chris Palmer is an American former football coach and college athletics administrator. Palmer served as the head coach for Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL) from 1999 to 2000 and in the same capacity with the Hartford Colonials of the United Football League (UFL) in 2010. He was the head football coach at the University of New Haven from 1986 to 1987 and at Boston University from 1988 to 1989. Palmer has also served as an assistant coach with the Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, New England Patriots, New York Giants, San Francisco 49ers, Houston Oilers, Tennessee Titans and the Buffalo Bills of the NFL. He later returned to the University of New Haven and served as the athletic director from 2018 to 2019.
Nick Santora is a writer and producer born in Queens, New York. He won the Best Screenplay of the Competition in the New York City Independent International Film Festival. He has also written for and/or produced The Sopranos, The Guardian, Law & Order, Prison Break, Lie to Me, and Scorpion and he created and executive produced Beauty and the Geek. Santora also co-wrote/created/executive produced the television series Breakout Kings. He served as executive producer and developer of Scorpion from 2014 to 2018 over four seasons.
Lauren Keyana "Keke" Palmer is an American actress, singer, and television host. She is known for playing both leading and character roles in comedy and drama productions. She has also created and hosts her own podcast. She has received several accolades, including two Primetime Emmy Awards, five NAACP Image Awards; along with nominations for a Daytime Emmy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Time magazine included her on their list of most influential people in the world in 2019.
The Comebacks is a 2007 American magical realism satirical comedy film directed by Tom Brady and story by Andrew Jacobson. This film is a parody of the clichés and plots of the sports film genre. It parodies 21 popular sports films along with historical real world sports events, credible live football action and excerpts from The Onion Movie inserted throughout the film. In the UK, Greece, Finland, Australia and New Zealand this film is called Sports Movie. The movie was released to theaters on October 19, 2007. It was partially filmed at the Cal State Fullerton Titan Stadium in Fullerton, California and Shepherd Stadium at Pierce College in Los Angeles, California.
Semi-Pro is a 2008 American sports comedy film. The film was directed by Kent Alterman in his directorial debut, written by Scot Armstrong, and produced by Jimmy Miller. It stars Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, André Benjamin and Maura Tierney, set during the final season of the American Basketball Association and telling the story of a fictional ABA team desperate to survive the league's merger with the NBA. The film was shot in Los Angeles near Dodger Stadium, in Detroit, and in Flint, Michigan. Released in theaters on February 19, 2008, and released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on June 3, 2008, it was the last film from New Line Cinema before they were absorbed by Warner Bros. Pictures. As of 2024, it is the only film directed by Kent Alterman. The film received generally negative reviews, with critics criticizing the script, though Ferrell's performance received praise.
Premonition is a 2007 American supernatural psychological thriller directed by Mennan Yapo and starring Sandra Bullock in the lead role, Julian McMahon, Nia Long, and Amber Valletta. The film's plot depicts homemaker Linda experiencing the days surrounding her husband's death in a non-chronological order and attempting to save him from his impending doom.
Cleaner is a 2007 American thriller film directed by Renny Harlin. It stars Samuel L. Jackson as a crime scene cleaner who thinks he has become part of a cover-up; Ed Harris, Keke Palmer, and Eva Mendes also star. The film was released on May 27, 2007.
The Express: The Ernie Davis Story is a 2008 American sports film produced by John Davis and directed by Gary Fleder. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay written by Charles Leavitt from a 1983 book Ernie Davis: The Elmira Express, authored by Robert C. Gallagher. The film is based on the life of Syracuse University football player Ernie Davis, the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy, portrayed by actor Rob Brown. The Express explores civil rights topics, such as racism, discrimination and athletics. It was the film debut of Chadwick Boseman as Floyd Little.
Tasha Smith is an American actor, director and producer. She began her career in a starring role on the NBC comedy series Boston Common (1996–97), and she later appeared in numerous movies and television series.
Resident Evil: Degeneration, known as Biohazard: Degeneration in Japan, is a 2008 Japanese adult animated biopunk action horror film directed by Makoto Kamiya. It is the first full-length motion capture animation feature in Capcom's Resident Evil franchise. The film was made by Capcom in cooperation with Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan. Degeneration made its premiere at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show and was released theatrically on October 17, 2008.
Dear John is a 2010 American romantic war drama film directed by Lasse Hallström, based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. It follows the life of a soldier after he falls in love with a young woman. They decide to exchange letters to each other after he is deployed to the war. The film was released in North America on February 5, 2010, by Screen Gems, and received mixed to negative reviews.
Jasmine Plummer is an American football player who was the first-ever female quarterback for a Pop Warner football team. At the age of 11 years old, she made history as the first female quarterback in the 56th Annual Pop Warner Super Bowl ; however, her team, the Harvey Colts, lost in the semifinals.
The 1925 College Football All-Southern Team consists of American football players selected to the College Football All-Southern Teams selected by various organizations for the 1925 Southern Conference football season.
American Underdog is a 2021 American biographical sports film about National Football League (NFL) quarterback Kurt Warner. Directed by Andrew and Jon Erwin, the film follows Warner's journey as an undrafted player who ascended to winning Super Bowl XXXIV. It stars Zachary Levi as Warner, alongside Anna Paquin as his wife Brenda and Dennis Quaid as his head coach Dick Vermeil.