The Longshots
Metascore
52 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 19 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 19
  3. Negative: 2 out of 19
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    The more it builds, the more it grows on you.
  2. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    75
    An unforced, sweet-natured story about people who find small ways to touch others and rediscover the good in themselves.
  3. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Josh Rosenblatt
    67
    Cube is excellent as the doughy, rumpled ex-somebody who finds new life in helping to save somebody else's.
  4. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Gregory Kirschling
    67
    Hopelessly clichéd.
  5. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    63
    Its characters are likable enough to settle in with for a pleasant hour and a half.
  6. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    63
    It's all terribly trite, but Durst does make an effort to keep his film grounded in the reality of a lot of once thriving towns like the fictional Minden.
  7. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    60
    It also has another watchable turn from Ice Cube, and, as with his previous films, the rap artist-actor leads by example.
  8. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Gary Goldstein
    60
    Cube fills the bill as the shaggy, aimless Curtis, a veritable ghost of glories past. It's not a particularly layered performance, but it works.
  9. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Mike Mayo
    60
    The characters have an equally realistic appearance that's rarely seen in Hollywood productions these days
  10. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    58
    A sports movie like every other, but the excellent, lived-in performances of Cube and Palmer make it a mildly affecting.
  11. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Ruthe Stein
    50
    Leaves you feeling buoyed, but you must endure a level of overacting more suitable for the soaps.
  12. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    50
    The saga is an undeniably heartwarming one about perseverance, hard work, and pride in community. And who could criticize that?
  13. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Jennie Punter
    50
    A pleasant flick, more suitable for families than football fans.
  14. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Nathan Lee
    50
    What makes this one different? Absolutely nothing. (Sure, it's based on a true story, but I mean come on, whatever.)
  15. Variety
    Reviewed by: Joe Leydon
    50
    While The Longshots is by no means an unpleasant experience, it feels like a project carried out by people who began with the best of intentions but weren't quite able to sustain their initial enthusiasm.
  16. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Sheri Linden
    40
    Every triumph registers low on the emotion meter, and most of the supporting characters are two-dimensional at best.
  17. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Felix Vasques Jr.
    40
    A clichéd and painfully formulaic little film.
  18. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Tasha Robinson
    38
    It's almost always rewarding to watch an underdog triumph--what else could explain why movies exactly like this keep being made?--but Longshots is one underdog that's hard to love and harder still to champion.
  19. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Vadim Rizov
    20
    The Longshots strains so hard to inspire, every moment underlined with a by-the-numbers score, that it ends up totally innocuous.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.6 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 7 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 1 out of 2
  1. ChadS.
    6
    The Gracie(Carly Schroeder) of "Gracie" is actually actress Elizabeth Shue as a young girl who wanted to play soccer when soccer was a boys only sport. In the film's most stirring scene, Gracie looks at herself in the mirror like a guy would; she flexes her arm, as an athlete would, a male athlete. "Gracie" takes place in the seventies. This scene carries the weight of a revolution in progress. Gracie is more concerned with big muscles than big breasts. In "The Longshots", Jasmine Plummer(Keke Palmer) aspires to be a model, but her Uncle Curtis(Ice Cube) has bigger plans for his niece. He uses famous women as throwing targets, beautiful women who might be role models for a young African-American girl. Beyonce, Foxy Brown, and Tyra Banks are utilized for the drill; talented women in their own right, but sex objects. Tyra used to be Jasmine's idol. Now that the world has opened up for her, she needs new idols. Sports give girls like Jasmine the option of being more than a pretty face with a tight body. But football? Some may argue(remember New Mexico Lobos' placekicker Katie Hnida?) that the game is sacrosanct to boys, which gives "The Longshots" a tension that other inspirational sports movies lack: animosity towards the hero. Football's gatekeepers believe that the hegemony of boys in the most masculine of sports should be maintained. Jasmine's participation as the starting quarterback on her middle school football team is a threat to that hegemony, which makes "The Longshots" a political movie, but the filmmaker largely ignores this fact, preferring instead to focus on the emotional uplift of a dying town that the team's change of fortune provides. What it does, it does well, but there's a glut of movies just like "The Longshots".… Full Review »
  2. MiguelS.
    0
    Lowbrow entertainment at its worst, don't waste your cash people!!!
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