When the Game Stands Tall
TriStar Pictures | Release Date: August 22, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
41
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
15
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubAug 21, 2014
More in the tone of the big screen "Friday Night Lights" than "Rudy" or "The Blind Side," it succeeds as mainstream entertainment without relying on a conventional storybook framework. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithAug 20, 2014
Nearly as good as the average episode of TV’s “Friday Nights Lights,” which makes it better than most movies and one of the better sports films of recent years. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesBruce IngramAug 21, 2014
It’s interesting that When the Game Stands Tall is essentially a movie about losing. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 21, 2014
There's no question that a soft-spoken person can be a great leader, but Caviezel underplays Ladouceur to the point that you wonder how the players could even hear him, much less be inspired by him. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyAug 20, 2014
For all the pains the movie takes to explain why someone shouldn’t play football—to win, to be a star, to defeat others — it never bothers to explain why someone should play the game. It’s a collection of well-intentioned absences with no defining presence to speak of. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaAug 22, 2014
Michael Chiklis doesn’t get to inject nearly enough humor as Coach Lad’s more demonstrative assistant. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriAug 22, 2014
The real-life story behind When the Game Stands Tall sounds amazing. But for all its exciting sports scenes, the movie version falls flat as drama. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 22, 2014
When the Game Stands Tall is one of those cliché-riddled feel good movies that, by trying too hard to be inspirational, ends up as cloying and overly sentimental. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Cliff LeeAug 21, 2014
Jim Caviezel, as coach Ladouceur, doesn’t get much to work with, the script reducing the man to a two-dimensional motivational speaker awash in “there’s no I in Team” platitudes. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTom RussoAug 21, 2014
It makes for a structurally glitchy inspirational exercise whose climax carries all the goosebump-making drama of a Pats preseason game. Read full review
50
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreAug 21, 2014
When the Game Stands Tall is a solid if unsurprising and uninspiring melodrama. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 22, 2014
While it's not really about football, it's not about sterling filmmaking, either. Read full review
40
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlAug 21, 2014
The movie is more effective as sports fantasy than as theology. Read full review
40
The New York TimesAnita GatesAug 21, 2014
Thomas Carter, the director, whips us into a frenzy during the big winning-again-is-everything game, as all sports underdog movies must. But in the end, the only real impact is limited to a few scenes. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJordan HoffmanAug 21, 2014
“Hoosiers” this ain’t. The redemptive final game has some nice plays and bone-crunching sound effects, but no grit. Ultimately, it’s a ho-hum, bromide-filled production undeserving of a victory dance. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberAug 20, 2014
It’s too blandly acted and directed to make much of an impact. Read full review
40
VarietyScott FoundasAug 20, 2014
An inspirational sports drama that goes long on rectitudinous sermonizing but comes up short on gridiron thrills or genuine love for the game. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesAug 20, 2014
It’s an impossible standard, maybe, but in 42 minutes, TV’s "Friday Night Lights" delivered all-star-level emotional complexity and action. When the Game Stands Tall is strictly JV squad. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerDavid HiltbrandAug 22, 2014
The script depends entirely too much on a succession of reporters, announcers, and spectators to provide context and detail in clunky, implausible dialogue. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineEric HendersonAug 21, 2014
Jim Caviezel commits only to the level of God-like omniscience that Mel Gibson whipped into him a decade ago, and as such his character often seems less a teacher than an appropriately shadowy figurehead of authority. Read full review
37
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanAug 21, 2014
Ironically, When the Game Stands Tall isn’t about keeping gridiron glory in perspective, but about blowing it out of proportion. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleAug 21, 2014
A true tale of high school football achievement becomes a strained, by-the-numbers grab bag of uplift in the Christian sports drama When the Game Stands Tall. Read full review
30
The DissolveScott TobiasAug 21, 2014
While discipline and self-control certainly figure into Ladouceur’s teachings, there’s also a passion and drive that’s totally absent from Caviezel’s performance. It’s not that the film needs any more goosing—it’s broad and shameless even by inspirational-sports-movie standards—but its basic lack of plausibility starts with him. Read full review
30
TheWrapInkoo KangAug 21, 2014
"When the Game” is like a bad seven-layer salad: it's tempting in theory, but it's really just a jumble of random ingredients that wind up supremely unappetizing in the aggregate. Read full review
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