Sadly Over-hyped

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The is based upon a true storyUniversity of Texas Coach Darrell Royal (Aaron Eckhart) tells the story of one of the best football players he ever had: Freddie Steinmark (Finn Wittrock). A reporter asks Coach Royal of all the All Americans he coached which one had the greatest impact on him. Coach Royal replies, " Freddie. Freddie Steinmark." The reporter states that Freddie Steinmark was never an All American. To which Coach Royal replies, "No, but he was MY ALL American."The first 3-quarters of this movie will remind you when you were in High School or early years of college as we follow Freddie Steinmark in his football days. It is delightful, funny, faith-based and honest. When Freddie meets Linda (Sarah Bolger) - the love of his life - in HS, we are off to the races.We see that Freddie Steinmark is truly an exceptional football player, who played Safety later on for Coach Royal. This movie shows us more football practices than we see from other football movies, and those action scenes are somewhat brutal too. (it's only a movie, Bob) When we see the actual games the hitting doesn't let up and we think about checking into the ER just to be safe. (still a movie)Aaron Eckhart probably plays the best role of his life as Coach Royal. Kudos. Newcomer Finn Wittrock as Freddie is a breath of fresh air and you wished you knew Freddie and further you wished everyone else was like him. He is the perfect friend as well as a better than exceptional football player. The last quarter of this movie is sad - extremely so - and you may need that Kleenex box. Everything caught me by surprise as I had never heard of Freddie Steinmark. Football movies come and go and we rarely or barely remember what they were about (except maybe for WE ARE MARSHALL) but this movie is much different as I don't think I will ever forget Freddie Steinmark or Coach Royal, who saw things in Freddie no one else saw. I am glad this movie was made so we know what an exceptional Human Being Freddie Steinmark was. Go to Wikipedia to learn more about Freddie Steinmark and Coach Darrell Royal. (9/10)Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: No.

"We would not have been national champions if you had not been on that field." Freddie Steinmark (Wittrock) is a tremendous football player, but was always told he was too small to play for a major college. When Texas coach Darrell Royal (Eckhart) recruits him, Freddie works harder than anyone on the team and finally earns a starting job. In the midst of a run at the National Championship season Freddie's knee begins to bother him. When he sees the doctor his life, and the legacy of Texas football is changed forever. I am a huge fan of sports movies, especially ones that are true. This one took awhile for me to get invested in, but when I did I really got into it. This is not one of the best sports movies I have ever seen, but it is very much worth seeing and I do highly recommend it. The movie has great sports scenes as well as a very emotional arc that can only be true, this isn't something you can make up. Sports movie fans will really like this, and this is actually a decent family movie. It is rated PG, but some of the subject matter may need to be explained. Overall, a very good movie that I recommend. Not one of the best sports movies ever made, but a very good addition to the genre. I give this a high B.

This is quite simply an amazing film.For starters, the acting performance by Aaron Eckhart as legendary head coach Darrell Royal is spot on. He got his mannerisms, speech patterns and facial expressions down-pat, and in doing all of that he got the spirit of Coach Royal almost perfectly portrayed.Secondly, Finn Wittrock makes the character of Freddie Steinmark very believable. He portrayed him as a flawed, fallible human being with a desire to prove himself and willing to do whatever it took to overcome any challenge...even when that challenge was his life.Finally, the incredible attention to detail to even the finest points. I have a copy of the 1969 Texas game vs. Arkansas in my home video library: let me assure you when they replicated the football action in that game, they did so with EXTREME accuracy....even down to a shot of a Longhorn Band member cheering on the team just before a big play in the game! Add in the charming performance of Juston Street as his father James Street, and the beautiful Sarah Bolger, and you've got a wonderful film. Freddie himself would be humbled and touched.This film explores themes of courage and overcoming adversity that should inspire anyone even if you're not a football fan.10/10 stars.

. . . in the current Docudrama, MY ALL AMER!CAN. A runt-like Colorado boy is the only player on his public high school football team attending mass daily. His dream is to play college ball at Notre Dame, like "The Gipper," and continue on to the Chicago Bears. He's going to have tons of babies with his high school sweetie on the side. When his only scholarship offer comes from an apparently Lily White University of Texas grid-iron squad, his new goal is to lead the Longhorns to an unprecedented Cotton Bowl match-up against the integrated Fighting Irish & Whatnots. Though MY ALL AMER!CAN does not overtly caution against making "pacts with the Devil," this 20-year-old runt DOES lead U-T to a national championship in his final game to set up the impossible long-shot of a few years back: U-T playing ND in the Cotton Bowl three weeks later. But as soon as that match-up is set, the under-sized over-achiever has a leg amputated at the hip, due to a baseball-sized cancerous tumor. This allows the U-T coach to pull a page from legendary Notre Dame master Knute Rockne, and plead for his team to "Win one for Freddie!" Most football fans and religious folks will be totally disillusioned by MY ALL AMER!CAN (unless they're up to the mental gymnastics being talked about in this week's sports sections, about how the "devout" families of Gridder Bart Starr and hockey great Gordie Howe see nothing wrong in filling these aging legends with stem cells from aborted babies to keep them going for a few more inches).