Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank, Antonio Banderas, even Tom Berenger. They've all been in films that follow the carbon copy stereotype of a teacher who meets a class of young delinquents and tries to ingratiate themselves to them to make them appreciate the value of education and turns their lives around.
Why am I writing a review of this film? Firstly this is based on an actual story. Secondly the character in question doesn't try to appeal to the students he's charged with by making himself look cool. Quite the opposite. Instead he tries to inculcate them with his values, not only approaching the game he was hired to teach with an intensity that makes a mark on the viewer but insists on them measuring up to academic standards. The result stands out among films of it's type (appropriate for a film about a coach rather than a teacher.)
At times the acting is a little off, even from Samuel L. Jackson, but this has little effect on that this is a film about a person rescuing students from a system 'designed for them to fail' done properly. The fact that it's a true story adds gravity to the considerable weight that the director and cast already imbued the film with.
