Sunday, March 25, 2007

MOVIE REVIEWS: ONLY AT 3B

FILM REVIEW: "PRIDE" (view trailer)

“Pride,” the true story of an all-black Philadelphia neighborhood swim team in the 1970’s, starring Terrence Howard and Bernie Mac, which starts today, hits nearly all the right notes. However they are chords that we have heard countless times, usually involving some sport team or player who bucks the odds and comes out a champion in the end.

The refreshing note in “Pride” is that it involves a sport we haven’t seen portrayed on screen by black actors: the world of competitive swimming. Aside from a few fresh glimpses of that world (“cup your hands for greater speed;” “drag is good for training, but death in racing”) everything else in “Pride” is pretty standard fair.

Jim Ellis (Terrence Howard), a former swimming star, can’t get a break from da man and winds up in a neighborhood recreation facility destined for decimation. The facility is staffed by crotchety old and funny Elston (Bernie Mac) and falls under the jurisdiction of a councilwoman played by Kimberly Elise—who seems to be getting ALL the black women roles lately. When the basketball hoop is suddenly taken down, good old Jim Ellis encourages the boys to come in and swim. And thus he gets them interested in aquatic competition. And do I need to mention that love blooms between Jim and the councilwoman?

If the plot in “Pride” seems as thin as water, it is. But that’s irrelevant. This is a feel good movie for the whole family. The neighborhood drug dealer, played with oily smarminess by Gary Anthony Sturgis, is mean enough to be the requisite bad guy but his viciousness is not played out in guns, knives or gratuitous violence. The supporting roles, most notably Kevin Phillips, Alphonso McAuley and Evan Ross provide fresh faces who play their parts with passion. And as a treat for the ladies, there are plenty of six packs and pecs to give them some great eye candy.

“Pride” works on a basic level—the level of familiarity, like a breakfast you have every morning. Nothing new, but you like it and its good for you. The 70’s soul music, we know and love. The images of afro-wearing brothers sweating it out on a basketball court, we know and love. And the story of black folks undergoing the b.s. of racism that has been so often thrown at us is a story we are all too familiar with. But overcoming that crap is the part we will always love.