Pride

A bunch of chisel-chested jokesters learn to take life more seriously from a tough-loving coach and a swimming pool. In this movie based on the life of Jim Ellis, Terence Howard plays a talented swim coach who just happens to stumble upon his inspirational career. Struggling to find a job in still-racist post-civil rights Philadelphia, Ellis settles for a janitorial job at a dilapidated recreation center. There, he takes five misguided yet toned teens off the basketball court and into the pool to preach pearls of wisdom while teaching the freestyle and the hardships of racial prejudice. Bernie Mac is wasted as wannabe comic relief and the pacing of the kids’ sudden swimming skills seems unreal in this formulaic biopic by director Sunu Gonera.