Gridiron Gang
Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) | Release Date: September 15, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
18
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
PremiereBartley Morrisroe
Can he (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson ) act? Surprisingly, for the most part, the answer is yes, and the film is a success for it. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The movie's inevitabilities (the humiliating loss, the ebb and flow of camaraderie, the triumphant finale) have deep resonance. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
Gridiron Gang gives you a lot more to think about during the ride home. Read full review
70
VarietyJohn Anderson
A crowd-pleasing, uplifting, feel-good and not-so-rare hybrid -- the sports/prison movie -- in which Los Angeles gangbangers are taught the virtues of trading violence on the streets for violence on the field. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
None of their stories are particularly resonant, but the film is really about a grand social experiment gone right, and it succeeds well enough on that front, even while it isn't that convincing in the particulars. Read full review
63
USA TodayStaff [Not Credited]
The best thing about Gridiron Gang is the performance of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. He is engaging, affable and wholly believable as a former football star turned officer in a juvenile detention center. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Great message, so-so movie. Read full review
60
EmpireSam Toy
What begins as a series of pleasant revelations and a deft example of genre defiance is nearly crippled by cliche in its second half, but The Rock's surprising dramatic magnetism will hold you until the final whistle. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Ultimately, the script lacks the ambiguity, irony and heartfelt emotion that would make the conversion of a dozen hardened criminals very credible, and -- despite its obvious good intentions -- the movie seems pat, simplistic and slightly phony. Read full review
58
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
It's sad that with everything it has going for it, this movie plays like a tall tale -- something too good to be true. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
Feels less like a movie and more like a Tony Robbins motivational seminar. Read full review
50
Village VoiceBill Gallo
Never mind the obvious parallels to "The Longest Yard" and "Remember the Titans"; what we get here is one huge, indigestible sports movie platitude. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Parades itself as an ''honest'' message movie, a call for troubled kids to choose life over street nihilism, but the picture is so earnest that it leaves out the easy, old-school pleasure conjured by the last few years of Disney sports flicks (Invincible, Miracle, The Rookie). Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
In a true-life sports tale like the recent "Invincible," you buy into all the inspirational clichés because the characters have inner lives and the movie is about something bigger; here, you keep hoping for something bad to happen to somebody just for the sake of balance. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
The film is a pleasant surprise. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
As sports movies go, Gridiron Gang isn't bad, just not top-line material. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJames Greenberg
Great material, but the film never catches fire. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJeannette Catsoulis
The movie's good intentions are consistently undermined by its simplistic notion of redemption, and its inspirational thrust is diluted by an epilogue that suggests the program still has a ways to go in the life-altering department. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderStaff (Not credited)
The end credits are accompanied by clips of Porter from the Emmy-winning documentary Gridiron Gang (1993), which prove that key scenes from this movie were lifted straight from life and that life needs better writers. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle Smith
Some movies present their whole story in a two-minute trailer, but Gridiron Gang says it all in its poster. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The film is relentlessly formulaic -- it's like a super-sized Afterschool Special with PG-13-rated bad language -- and is weighed down by Trevor Rabin's bombastic score, which telegraphs the appropriate emotional response to every feel-good moment. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
The Rock commits himself admirably to this trite tale, but by the end, even his enormous shoulders buckle under the weight of so many clichés. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Instead of a crackling good movie in which "The Longest Yard" meets, say, "The Bad News Bears," director Phil Joanou instead decided to make Gridiron Gang a lugubrious tutorial on the importance of being a winner. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
If you like your sports movies, especially your football movies, larded with more clichés than a politician's stump speech, Gridiron Gang begs to be seen. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Gridiron Gang is not imaginative, but neither is it painful to watch. Read full review
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