Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Strong and Moving!

Best movie ever!

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Hoosiers is one of the best high school sports films ever made. Made me think of Bobby Knight because the story follows a washed up coach Norman Dale (Hackman) who gets one last chance to coach because of a personal friendship with the principal at Hickory HS. Like Knight, Hackman lost his job because of anger problems. He comes to Hickory to seek redemption.Hoosiers excels at so many levels. The cinematography is beautiful and breathtaking, capturing the local community and nature with wonderful shots of being alone in mid America. Hackman also gets isolated when he lets the locals know in no uncertain terms that HE is the coach, not them, and that they better let him be. Hackman delivers a masterful performance with his smiles and easygoing yet tough exterior. He uses charm to get his way, but he uses his tough character to teach the boys that he's serious about coaching them to be great.Barbara Hershey's character is more complex. A local who left and came back. She seems stuck in the mud, at time literally, in this little community, this little school of 84 kids. Never going anywhere. Makes you kind of think of George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life. Hershey is not as good an actor as Hackman by any stretch, and she had trouble keeping up with him. Also, the screenplay with their relationship left me wondering if that part made any sense. Hackman guides the team with help from a recovering drunk played wonderfully by a young Dennis Hopper as Scooter. He's terrific, and offers another challenge for Hackman to overcome, especially because his son is one of the stars on the team.The team improves when Jimmy rejoins the team after a personal tragedy. He's a star and immediately lifts the entire town. They fight and claw and battle and give it their all. Can they go as far as they are challenged to go?Like MacFarland or Friday Night Lights or other sports comeback flicks, this one will leave you cheering. I think the end could have been a bit longer and more played out. Plus the Hershey/Hackman relationship could have been revised a bit. Otherwise - great film. A classic basketball film that will have you cheering. Enjoy.

"Norman Dale" (Gene Hackman) was a college basketball coach for 10 years until an incident force him to leave and subsequently join the Navy. Now, 12 years later, he has returned to the profession he loves by accepting a coaching position for a high school in Indiana. However, the people in this small town take basketball extremely serious and they aren't nearly as enthusiastic to his new methods as he would like. To make matters even worse he only has 6 players on the team with one key holdout named "Jimmy Chitwood" (Maris Valainis) deciding not to play the entire season. That being said, when the team gets off to a rocky start everyone in town begins to call for his scalp. But he remains determined in spite of everything that has gone wrong. The question is whether he can turn things around before he gets fired. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that having spent a little time in Indiana this film did an excellent job of capturing the basketball climate as well as presenting the small town atmosphere there during that particular time also. Truly excellent. Additionally, along with the aforementioned Gene Hackman, I also liked the performances of Barbara Hershey (as "Myra Fleener") and Dennis Hopper ("Shooter") as well. In any case, this is one of those few movies that I can watch over and over again and I have rated it accordingly. Definitely above average.

Hoosiers is your typical movie about sports where a team that is pretty much full of useless players suffers a great change under the supervision of a new coach. The story however does not start easy for the new boss as the locals put unusual amounts of pressure on him to perform and take the team to an honorable position. Fighting against everyone to defend is unique style of teaching basketball, he slowly starts seeing the results of his efforts and get people on his side. While Hoosiers is fun, I can think of many other sports movies that are way more entertaining and inspirational. Here are a few: Moneyball, Invincible, and Rudy.

A coach with a checkered past (Gene Hackman) and a local drunk (Dennis Hopper) train a small town high school basketball team to become a top contender for the championship.Although I am not one who cares for basketball or sports films (they all seem to follow the same general plot), this one does have some good things going for it. Namely, Gene Hackman, who never makes a bad movie (or at least never plays a bad role). And Dennis Hopper, who is something of a wild card and is appropriately cast as a drunk.Beyond that, it is just a feel good movie. Nothing too heavy, sort of the thing you expect from the 1980s. And that is just alright.