an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

You know, I find it a bit ridiculous that most movies with Characters that are mainly African American/Black, never make it past a 5 or above in its 5 star ratings. I think that this movie is excellent. It shows what our struggles are and were like with trying to go out into the world. "Some things don't change"; yeah well, Mr. Howard, they don't. And according to these comments, it seems like many of us as a generation will still have to put up with the nonsense. Movie was exceptional. Take a look into o u r world. Many cheat us of our ratings and it's beyond foul. Bet if this movie was mainly with Caucasians, it'd be at least a 9, am I correct? Just being honest.

I checked IMDb : 3.9 score. Then I worked out this was a "black" film, or, translated, an inspiring film where the main subjects are black but which can be inspiration to anyone out there. And "black" films hardly ever get scores above 5, so I decided to take it out anyhow and see it for myself.What a film. What a performance from Terrence Howard, yet again - this man doesn't know what bad acting is; whatever the film, the Oscar winning CRASH, the revenge thriller with Jodie Foster, THE BRAVE ONE, John Singleton's FOUR BROTHERS, or HUSTLE & FLOW, this guy shows he is one of the best actors around.Whatever your colour, simply put your Objective hat on and let yourself be inspired - you'll go to bed dreaming, feeling good, moved, inspired. Brilliant.

In 1964 there was a black swimmer who tried to compete in an all white swim meet in North Carolina. The white people booed him. When he jumped in the pool, no one else competed. He got upset. Then he was a victim of police brutality. Ten years later, he came to Philadelphia to a run down recreation center to close it down. But he found a pool and started an award winning swim team. Terrace Dashon Howard did a great job playing coach Ellis. It was so funny to see Bernie Mac and Tom Arnold playing serious roles in this movie. And the young people in this movie could act. Evan Ross proved once again that he is not just Diane Ross's son. And Kimberly Elise made this movie. Make sure you watch the DVD version so you will see deleted scenes.

It is puzzling why so many "1" votes have been given to this movie, because it is actually pretty good. It is based on a true story of a former competitive swimmer from the 1960s who, looking for meaningful work 10 years later, stumbles upon an opportunity to form a swim team from a group of rag-tag guys in the hood.Terrence Howard is Jim Ellis, and he is hired to clean up and close down a Philadelphia recreation area which had fallen into disrepair. It happened to have a competition pool, and Jim gets it back into swimming shape on his own time.Bernie Mac is good as the long time maintenance man Elston.One hot summer day the basketball hoop is taken down and the guys who usually play pickup ball there are left without a place to play. They wander into the natatorium and swim to keep cool. Jim picks up on their competitive juices and agrees to help them become good swimmers.While not a great movie, it is interesting and entertaining.