The Program

R

1993

1 hr. 53 min.

Drama

List

43%

21 Reviews

Tomatometer

80%

10,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

A college football coach (James Caan) forfeits all but winning to get his troubled team to the big game.

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Alex

Absolutely mind blowing. I was off the age that the main character went here.. this is insane!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/07/24

Full Review

Steve D

You have seen it all before but it works.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

Full Review

Boris H

One of the best football movies ever made. James Caan did a great job playing college coach trying to save his job. Whoever casted this movie was absolutely brilliant along with adding Halle Berry as the love interest.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

12/19/22

Full Review

Audience Member

As a movie about "Blue Chipping" in college football it gets four and half stars. Blue Chipping is when college players are rewarded for everything from choosing to play at their school, plays made in game etc etc. This practice is suposed to be illegal and by doing so will make the sport unfair to smaller colleges that cant afford to get better players because another school gave a player they wanted a new car or other gifts to play for them. So as far as that story goes its a good one. But this movie tells other things or at least tries to tell other stories which drag it down to one star. One player is using steroids and you learn "but not directly" that the head coach knows and even supports and helps hide that info from officals and his own staff. In the end he knows what he's done to the student and that they are mentaly damaged from the drugs he was given. Thats it. The story ends with no conclusion. Its just one of many short stories told in the movie that dont get answered. Like what happend after the last game? They made it to the championship but then it ends. Did they win or loose? Also why does the quarterback look like he's in his 30's. The biggest is how the "hero" Quarterback Cane, is supposed to be damaged goods after having to go into rehab because of his drinking. You see this in the last game. The coach pulls him aside and gives him a very limp wristed pump up speach and we're suposed to believe that this is what motivates him to get back to doing what got him there in the first place? Also if ESU is supposed to be a top school, then why is its backup quarterback so terrible. They take a lot of time showing him to be a good leader to some extent but then show him as a buffoon on the field. There is so much wrong with this movie. Though it does have Halle Berry in it. Unfortunately she is almost always fully clothed and never wearing anything suggestive so another lost oppertunity. James C. Is totally wrong for this movie. At no time did I believe that he could be who he was in the story. But as for someone being corrupt and decitful they couldn't have found anyone better. The movie ends with you asking "Thats it?" And asking yourself, " did I just waste 2 hours watching this, when I could have just watched Blue Chips instead"? Blue Chips is basically the same movie, that came out around the same time with Nick Nolte as the head coach of a college basketball team who gets players by "Blue Chipping" And tells a more complete story. Skip "the Program" and watch Blue Chips instead.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/18/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Dramatic look at the college football recruitment process. It's a stale, predictable and cliche attempt at a sports movie. Director Ward who directed the funny Major League, isn't given a strong script.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A coach is under pressure to win games in this gritty but overdone sports drama.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/19/23

Full Review

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David S. Ward

Director

James Caan

Sam Winters

Halle Berry

Autumn Haley

Omar Epps

Darnell Jefferson

Craig Sheffer

Joe Kane

Kristy Swanson

Camille Shafer

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John Petrakis

Chicago Tribune

Those are fairly standard story lines in a football movie, so that leaves the assorted relationship subplots, which frankly, are worse.

Rated: 2/4

Jan 24, 2014

Full Review

Brian Lowry

Variety

Most of the focus is on Sheffer, whose character is too enigmatic, while Epps , Berry and Swanson gamely try to pull for extra dramatic yardage but can't do much with their underwritten roles.

Mar 26, 2009

Full Review

Janet Maslin

New York Times

The Program is a routine Joe College movie, with the added twist that Joe College is Joe Kane (Craig Sheffer), a prime contender for the Heisman Trophy.

Aug 30, 2004

Full Review

Malcolm Johnson

Hartford Courant

While The Program has its light-hearted moments, it mostly crunches along as a problem-oriented sports soap opera. And Ward has a difficult time pulling together all his disparate elements of his story...

Jun 4, 2018

Full Review

Jim Schembri

3AW

Very good, revealing film about the extraordinary pressure of modern competitive sport and the man who has become something of a negative role model, even though his backstory as a cancer survivor does allow room for sympathy.

Rated: 3/5

Nov 27, 2015

Full Review

Chuck O'Leary

Fantastica Daily

Rated: 2/5

Oct 9, 2005

Full Review

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Synopsis

A college football coach (James Caan) forfeits all but winning to get his troubled team to the big game.

Director: David S. Ward
Production Co: Touchstone Pictures
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 5, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $22.8M
Sound Mix: Stereo, Surround

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