Coach Carter

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2:23

Coach Carter

PG-13

Released Jan 14, 2005

2h 16m

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

64%

Tomatometer

146 Reviews

85%

Popcornmeter

250,000+ Ratings

In 1999, Ken Carter (Samuel L. Jackson) returns to his old high school in Richmond, California, to get the basketball team into shape. With tough rules and academic discipline, he succeeds in setting the players on a winning streak. But when their grades start to suffer, Carter locks them out of the gym and shuts down their championship season. When he is criticized by the players and their parents, he sticks to his guns, determined that they excel in class as well as on the court.

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Critics Consensus

Even though it's based on a true story, Coach Carter is pretty formulaic stuff, but it's effective and energetic, thanks to a strong central performance from Samuel L. Jackson.

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Nell Minow

Common Sense Media

Engaging film with a terrific message.

Rated: 4/5

Dec 22, 2010

Full Review

J. R. Jones

Chicago Reader

This is supposed to be about setting high standards, yet it's full of fudged ultimatums; in the end I couldn't be sure whether its morality was complex or just confused.

Mar 25, 2008

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Nathan Rabin

AV Club

Samuel L. Jackson shouts, yells, bellows, and screams his way through the fact-inspired film

Oct 6, 2006

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David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

...a decent-enough inspirational sports drama...

Rated: 2.5/4

Feb 18, 2023

Full Review

Eddie Harrison

The List

Despite the attraction of fluently filmed basketball sequences, director Thomas Carter's simplistic approach to the social and educational issues involved makes this vacuous MTV-produced movie fall well short of the basket.

Rated: 2/5

Apr 23, 2019

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Leigh Paatsch

Herald Sun (Australia)

A quality sports drama.

Rated: 3/5

Sep 27, 2018

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Hroar S

Love basketball. Loved this movie. Key word “loved”. It was promising. The movie shows a message thats powerful and important, im all with that. The only problem is that the movie is terrible, only because of one crucial mistake. The ending. Oh my days the ending is so disappointing and frustrating. I would give this movie 0 stars if it didnt have a good message tied to it. But for my stand point im not the one this message reaches out to so i honestly regret watching coach carter. I shouldn’t have watched this movie, it was a waste of time.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

05/31/25

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Yakking With F

i watched it at school its was okay i give it a 3 of 10 i love basketball

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

04/21/25

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Yash B

An inspiring true sports story is like comfort food to me, and "Coach Carter" is no exception. This feel-good story is consistently entertaining and kept me engaged. Samuel L. Jackson gives a great lead performance here and it is what makes the film memorable. I do think the movie falls into some genre trappings but there are also moments where it feels like it is very different from the rest. This movie is long but it covers a lot of ground, so I felt the pacing was mostly good. I like the messages in the movie and think young people could take away a lot of terrific lessons from it. I also enjoy the sport of basketball and think the sports sequences are a rush to watch. Overall, it is a very good sports movie that gives genre fans what they want, and also celebrates a true story that is well worth telling.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

04/19/25

Full Review

College V

An amazing amazing movie, the emotions, the thrill, the coach’s resolve, the length, everything was done right and realistically it had me screaming Richmond at my PC lol. No unnecessary drama and sends a perfect message

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

04/18/25

Full Review

Audience Member

I only put this 5 star out of fear of doing 1,000 suicides and 25,00 push-ups. This movie is smooth I guess. I will never forgive them for that ending that they had. They should have made the state championship. I hate this movie for the ending but pretending the ending don't exist ts fire twan. If you got a problem with ts review imma find you and make you run suicides. The end. on folknem. btw Paul S has dementia

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/28/25

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Jerod S

No surprises on this insp sports film led by Samuel L Jackson. Channing being a bad boy is kinda humorous.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/05/25

Full Review

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Thomas Carter

Director

Samuel L. Jackson

Coach Ken Carter

Robert Ri'chard

Damien Carter

Rob Brown

Kenyon Stone

Ashanti

Kyra

Debbi Morgan

Tonya

Coach Carter: Official Clip - The Final Shot

1:55

Coach Carter: Official Clip - Push-Ups and Suicides

2:07

Coach Carter: Official Clip - Richmond vs. Bay Hill

2:04

Coach Carter: Official Clip - Not Your Storybook Ending

2:13

Coach Carter: Official Clip - Timeout Pep Talk

1:56

Coach Carter: Official Clip - Come-from-Behind Win

2:11

Coach Carter: Official Clip - Our Deepest Fear

1:59

Coach Carter: Official Clip - First Practice

2:12

Coach Carter: Official Clip - A Better Life

2:09

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Coach Carter: Trailer 1

2:23

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Synopsis

In 1999, Ken Carter (Samuel L. Jackson) returns to his old high school in Richmond, California, to get the basketball team into shape. With tough rules and academic discipline, he succeeds in setting the players on a winning streak. But when their grades start to suffer, Carter locks them out of the gym and shuts down their championship season. When he is criticized by the players and their parents, he sticks to his guns, determined that they excel in class as well as on the court.

Director: Thomas Carter
Producer: Brian Robbins, Michael Tollin
Screenwriter: Mark Schwahn
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Production Co: MTV Films, Tollin/Robbins Productions
Rating: PG-13 (Sexual Content|Language|Some Drug Material|Teen Partying|Violence)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 14, 2005, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 15, 2011
Box Office (Gross USA): $67.3M
Runtime: 2h 16m
Sound Mix: Dolby SRD, DTS, Surround
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

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