We Are Marshall- 5 out of 10

Starting this year, I am going to start putting numerical ratings on my reviews, so if you don't want to read the whole thing, you can get an idea of what I thought of the movie by just reading the number I gave it.

We Are Marshall is the new movie about the aftermath of the 1970 plane crash that killed the entire University of Marshall football team and coaching staff. It stars Matt McConaughey, Matthew Fox, David Strathairn and Ian McShane among others.

After the plane crash, the university is thinking of shutting down the football program, but in comes McConaughey, who becomes the new head coach.

I cannot say I really liked this movie too much. It did not resonate with me at all. I didn't find it to be particularly emotional, true story or not. I understand it's a sad event, but there are all sorts of sad movies out there, some that are effective, some that aren't, and this just was one of the latter to me. To be honest, I was rather bored with it at times, and there was nothing unique to this movie save the event itself. But a movie can't just be sad and get away with being mediocre as a result. Pearl Harbor was a terrible event, but the movie was one of the worst affronts to American cinema. I think McG (the director) took the easy way out, and made a very homogenized movie about a tragedy.

The good... well the performances were great, the two Matthews and David Strathairn were a lot of fun to watch, and the movie offered a pretty in-depth look at the running of a football team and team strategy during the middle portion, much more than what a lot of other football movies will give you. There's also a part with Bobby Bowden that I liked. Having lived outside of Huntington, it was neat seeing places I recognized, but that novelty can only carry you so far.

I don't think this movie ranks near Rudy or Remember the Titans in terms of emotional sports movies, or Hoosiers or Friday Night Lights in terms of an in-depth realistic look at a sports team. Perhaps in the hands of someone different, but as it was, it is no different than any other inspirational sports movie. Like I said before, it's worth going to see for the performances of the main three actors in the movie, but the scenes involving Ian McShane are painful at best, in a bad way. I don't know if that's his American accent, or his West Virginian accent, but either way, it sounded awful.