National Champions

Welcome to the business side of football.....if you are a fan and wanna get into this game for some football action please be advised....there's no single football game in the movie but this movie got some powerful punches with dialogues, emotions, performances and the truth. Was kinda disappointed to find this actually didn't happen and all is based on a play...the movie's plot was soo convincing and real and wanna make you find out what happens next in college football or any other college sport. It's a well directed movie centered around what we see in college sport and I highly recommend this movie.

''The NCAA doesn't pay its student athletes despite earning billions of dollars off our hard work every year'' - (Lamarcus James) With only 72 hours before the NCAA National Football Championship game, Lamarcus James, super star quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner, decides to boycott the game. Lamarcus, along with his wide receiver and best friend Emmet Sunday, announces on TV that they will not play in the big game to protest student athletes not receiving any compensation (pay) from the NCAA. They ask other players to join them and ignite a player's strike until all student-athletes are fairly compensated.

So now with with sponsors threatening to pull out, (literally billions of dollars at stake) the Power Brokers take over (NCAA & SEC) and bring in their ''Fixer''(Uzo Aduba) to handle Lamarcus and fix everything.

The Fixer surprises Lamarcus with a very sincere and passionate speech and we suddenly see a totally different side to the ''compensation'' for student athletes. Now, with only hours until kickoff, will Lamarcus have a change of heart?

Really, football is not the main theme, we never really see any actual football being played. Should College athletes receive a salary? ... well that is what this movie is about and the movie plays out more like a political statement then I would have liked to have seen.

Now all politics aside, there are good performances in this movie. What a Incredible performance by Uzo Aduba, and J. K. Simmons, Tim Blake Nelson, Jeffrey Donovan, Kristin Chenoweth, and Timothy Olyphant.

Writer Adam Mervis put out a pretty good plot on this one. The flick was interesting with little dead time. But the ending was abrupt. It felt like they just ran out of money, or couldn't think of a way to end the movie. What a let-down! At least they have room for a sequel. But kudos to Adam Mervis for an original plot and near-real storyline. Director Rick Roman Waugh did a good job getting interesting and believable performances from his actors, but the continuity needed some polishing. Some scene cuts and actor emotional transitions were a little confusing. Kudos for the producers choosing to shoot in New Orleans, where they could use the money influx.

There's a lot of unfair hate in the reviews about it not showing a football game thus missing the point of the movie.

There are a couple side plots that are unnecessary which is why I subtracted a couple of stars but I highly recommend this movie to anyone that's interested in the debate whether student-athletes (or at least those playing football) deserve more than just an education and small stipend for playing at a collegiate level while the NC 2 A rakes in more dough than they need to subsidize scholarships for all student-athletes in all sports nationwide.

Personally I did more than a couple of papers on this subject in college and while I don't have an expert level of knowledge I do have more than zero and I'll leave it at that. The acting was actually really good, save one female actor, and the script writing was really good. Overall go in with zero expectations and you'll be entertained.

As a 116 mins long sports drama, I was expecting to see at least one game. But instead it was scenes in and out of hotel rooms with some soap-opera melodramatics and twists. I will say though, this did feel very real, and I'm curious if this story was conceived as a slap in the face to college football et al. The performances by all were excellent and captivating, especially J. K. Simmons, and the only reason I sat through the entire film. The ending was underwhelming, and I never did get to see any game, but the film was still unique and well put together. This may not be for everyone, especially if you don't follow college football or sports in general. It's a generous 7/10 from me.