You won't be disappointed!

To me, this movie is perfection.

Nice effects though.

As Good As It Gets

I am not going to lie to you, most of the time when I hear the word 'documentary' associated with a movie, I lose quite a bit of interest. From what I have heard that is not an unpopular opinion about documentaries. The knock on these type of films is usually that they are too boring, too education based, and most of all they lack the Hollywood acting, suspense, and plot line of your typical interesting movie. Does that sound about like your thoughts when thinking about the word 'documentary'? Well let me tell you that this movie, Undefeated, will blow you away if you are expecting a prototypical documentary film that lacks all of the aforementioned qualities. The filmmakers of this documentary absolutely hit it out of the park with this one! Undefeated is a triumphant tale about a mediocre (at best) high school football team that is simply unbelievable that it was all caught on camera to say the least. This high school football team, the Manassas Tigers out of Memphis Tennessee, is an inner city school in which the funding, especially for the football team, is very poor. The conditions in which these kids were going to school and playing football in were so poor, it was difficult to get good football players to come there for years, hence making the Manassas Tigers the butt of all football jokes in not only Memphis, but all of West Tennessee and the surrounding areas. In all honesty, it is pretty easy to make jokes about a football team that hadn't won a football game in 10+ years before the arrival of volunteer coach and star of the film, Bill Courtney. In coach Courtney's first season at Manassas he recorded four victories and began to turn some heads. A good thing for Coach Courtney about that minimal success in his first season, was some of those heads that were turning were some very talented eighth graders that took notice of the programs progress and were lured by Coach Courtney to come to Manassas to build a winning team there. One of those eighth graders was an eventual All American offensive lineman by the name of O.C. Brown. This film takes place during Brown's senior year at Manassas, and Bill Courtney's sixth season leading the Tigers as a volunteer head football coach. The filmmakers do a terrific job of capturing as much of this highly anticipated season as possible, and take you on a roller coaster ride of different emotions, from extreme disappointment to moments of great triumph. The best part of a documentary doing this, is the fact that you are able to not only experience this watching it, but your emotions live vicariously through the different football players and other people featured in the film. This is a key aspect that absolutely blew me away, and after you watch this movie you will understand more of what I am talking about when I tell you that the filmmakers hit absolute gold in luckily capturing a magical season for the Tigers. You will notice as you watch the film that you will hear from many people and accounts throughout the movie, but the film captures this season focusing on four main people. Two of the people it follows have already been mentioned, head coach Bill Courtney, and All American lineman O.C. Brown. Brown is a very talented football player that over the course of the season will struggle with the balance between football, and being able to keep his grades up in the classroom to possibly be able to go to college and further his football career. The third person featured in this film is Montrail Brown, or better known as "Money". (No relation to O.C.) Money is an extremely smart kid and although he may be undersized, works harder than anyone on the football field to be good. Money will not only be physically challenged, but also goes through a tough spiritual and mental challenge during this film. The fourth and final person with a key role in the film is a junior standout linebacker, Chavis Daniels. Chavis has storied and well documented anger issues, headlined in the beginning of the film in telling the viewers that he just got finished serving fifteen months in a youth penitentiary. The film will highlight and follow his anger issues throughout. Overall, this film teaches some of the same lessons and values that Coach Courtney instills in the young men on his team. I pulled two quotes from Coach Courtney in the film that I think portray his mission very well. At the beginning of the film he lays it all out there saying "The foundation has got to be a solid platform that you can stand on and speak to these kids and say, this is the way you build yourself, if you build yourself this way and handle yourself this way and have character, you get to play football. And winning will take care of itself because, young men of character and discipline and commitment end up winning in life and they end up winning in football. Well when you flip it, and the foundation of what you're doing is football, and then you hope all that other stuff follows. Well then you think football builds character. Which it does not. Football reveals character". The second quote is one he gives early on to his players, and is repeated in the film. "The character of a man is not measured in how he handles his wins, but what he does with his failures". This is the best documentary I have ever watched, I recommend you do yourself a favor and give it a try. You'll love every second of it!

This is the story of the Manassas High School football team and their coach. It is a predominately black school in Tennessee. They have never had much success because they are lacking in every area, money, hope, and talent. A white coach who pretty much gives his entire life to his young charges, works to get them successful in the classroom and on the field. They have a chance to win the first playoff game in the history of the school, but he must nursemaid them in every way he can to get them to that point. They have one division one prospect, a huge offensive lineman, whose academics are at issue. He has a loose cannon kid who has spent time in prison and has just returned, carrying his baggage onto the team. There is nothing simplistic about this film. These young men have two strikes against them and this is a chance to be true team. It's hard to reproduce the heart that is in this movie. Just see it and ask yourself if it isn't one of the best sports films you've ever seen.

I found this a very inspirational film with insights into the lives of the players and the coaches alike. Admittedly, a lot of the focus is on Coach Courtney, but we do get glimpses of the lives of the players too. Not only star player O.C. Brown, but players like Montrail 'Money' Brown, who struggles with a bad injury part-way through the season. It was great to see how both the coach and his team-mates stood by him throughout. Also there was bad boy Chavis Daniels, who had problems with discipline but overcame them to become an intrical part of the team. Even if, like me, you're not particularly a fan of the game this inspirational film is well worth a look!SteelMonster's verdict: HIGHLY RECOMMENDEDMy score: 8.9/10You can find an expanded version of this review on my blog: Thoughts of a SteelMonster.

I watch a lot of movies; I mean A LOT of movies. I've been very interested in the art of communicating stories in a meaningful way since the days of "Grave Marauders" back in the 5th grade. I've acted in quite a few plays, attended an acting school in Hollywood, worked at Pixar, etc. So I feel like I've got a pretty good handle on how to discriminate between good and bad films. Also, in addition to growing up without a father, experiencing first-hand the struggles that come as a result, I also had the privilege to serve as a School Resource Officer for a couple of years. That experience gave me the opportunity, in a greater social context, to see the fallout of young men growing up without fathers. Day after day I witnessed young men with incredible potential, sabotage their own lives as they struggled to figure out who they are, what it means to be a man, and do their best to figure out how to become one.In my opinion, young men growing up with absent fathers is one of the most damaging social epidemics of our time, the consequences of which leave devastating and painful scars that negatively impact every single aspect of our culture. To aggravate matters more, the very source of the problem (the absence of strong, positive male leaders) is the very reason why progress toward the solution is so slow. It is very difficult to find men of character who are willing and strong enough to endure the friction and frustration that comes as a result of attempting to mentor these frustrated and lost, yet very bright and talented young men.How inspiring it was to have this film introduce us to a true man and leader like Bill Courtney. I absolutely love that the film did not paint him to be someone he is not; that they showed us his moments of weakness and frustration as well as his moments of victory, strength, and success. Too often, I think that men shrink from opportunities to serve in meaningful ways because we are led to believe that we have to be perfect; that we have to have it all together. The lives of the young men he coached are forever changed in fantastic and positive ways that, had he not stepped up, would otherwise never have happened.The following point is the greatest thing of all to me: Not only have their lives been enriched as a result of Bill Courtney being involved, but the world becomes a better place as well. These young men will go on to have a positive impact on their families and communities and, even if it's only in a small way, the world becomes a better place; all because Bill Courtney cared about those young men. He wasn't perfect; he got mad and frustrated and cursed and fought. But he was present; he was there. He cared for those young men, and they knew it.It just goes to show that, when a strong leader, even an imperfect one, takes the time to help rebuild the broken emotional foundation of a young man, and teaches them how to recognize and appreciate their own value, it empowers that young man to unleash his talents, gifts, skills, abilities, goodness, and potential upon the world… making it a better place.This movie is FANTASTIC and is by far one of my very favorites. It is a MUST SEE.