Rebound (2005) starring Martin Lawrence, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Breckin Meyer, Horatio Sanz, Oren Williams, Patrick Warburton, Megan Mullally directed by Steve Carr Movie Review

Rebound (2005)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Wendy Raquel Robinson and Martin Lawrence in Rebound (2005)

The Mighty Dunks

Sometimes I have to laugh, I read reviews of movies which obviously target a young audience being judged as if they were made for grown ups just because they star an actor who has impressed in grown up movies. One such movie is the Martin Lawrence lead "Rebound" which for all sense and purpose is "The Mighty Ducks" for a new generation or for those who have never seen "The Mighty Ducks" it is a by the book children's sports movie. It is completely cliche when it comes to the story and the humour is the simplest and most obvious I have seen from puddle splashes to nervous geeks but none of that matters because for young children it works, it tells the story throws in a few laughs and gets across a couple of life lessons about team work in the process. Okay so it could have been better and Martin Lawrence is better than this but it doesn't make "Rebound" a bad movie just a routine one.

Roy McCormick (Martin Lawrence - College Road Trip) is a top basketball coach, in fact so good that he is better known than most of his team and gets plenty of endorsement deals. But as fame goes to his head and he believes his own hype things come crashing down when his anger sees him banned from coaching college basketball and the only job he can get is back at the junior high he went to, coaching a bunch of no hopers.

Tara Correa-McMullen and Steven Christopher Parker in Rebound (2005)

So from an adult's point of view "Rebound" is a grade A typical children's sports movie and as already mentioned it is basically the basketball version of "The Mighty Ducks" for a new generation. As such everything about it is obvious from Roy growing to enjoy coaching the young kids, bonding with them, winning over a single mother, helping the kids out with individual problems and so on and so forth until of course he has to make a choice about his career. It is basically routine and so is the humour which whilst including one child who vomits before a game is as inoffensive as it comes with some comical anger and then innocent humour such as a puddle splash.

But whilst all monotonously obvious from an adult's point of view from a child's point of view it will work, it will entertain and make them smile. But at the same time it gets across a few simple life messages about team work, having fun and so on and so forth. It is all typical but I know if I was an 11 year old given "Rebound" to watch I would have enjoyed it in the same way "The Might Ducks" entertained young teens back in 1992.

I suppose the trouble is that Martin Lawrence is capable of so much more and so when an adult watches "Rebound" it is disappointing yet a child isn't going to care. In fact from a child's point of view Lawrence as McCormick is funny from being full of himself to how he ends up bonding with the children and talking of which the child actors do a good job as well giving us all individual characters.

What this all boils down to is that "Rebound" is your typical children's sports movie which sees a coach helping out a bunch of no hopers and the coach learning from the kids. It is simply that and so for children it will work but for an adult it will just seem like a rehash of a movie they use to watch.


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